Evan Carter didn’t get the chance to follow up on his impressive debut with the Texas Rangers last year.
A slow start turned into a persistent back strain, and recently general manager Chris Young said Carter is unlikely to return this season, which was meant to be his first full year in the majors.
Carter reached base in all 17 of the Rangers’ postseason games last year, hitting .300 with a record nine doubles for the postseason. He was called up in September as an injury replacement, made his debut 10 days after turning 21, and hit .306 with five homers in 23 games.
This season, during his final 14 games before taking a week off without being placed on the injured list, Carter struggled with a .053 average (2 for 38) and just one RBI.
His numbers for 2024, which will likely be his final stats for the season he was expected to be a Rookie of the Year candidate, include a .188 batting average with five homers and 15 RBIs. He last played on May 26.
“At the end of the day, I think any player just wants to help their team win no matter what that looks like,” Carter said.
“I think if you look at it from that side, especially there for the last month of what I had going on, I wasn’t helping the team win and that sucks.”
“That’s kind of when I had to accept for myself that I wasn’t doing myself or the team any good,” Carter said. “I pushed through it through May. I know now if I tried to push through, it’s going to be the same story. I don’t want to do that to myself or the team.”
Carter said the movement needed for swinging aggravated the injury. He expects to wait 10 weeks before using a bat again, which likely rules out a return if the Rangers make the postseason.
Texas is behind Seattle and Houston in the AL West and even further back in the wild card race.
“I’ve had a week or two now, I’m not swinging, it feels better,” Carter said. “But that’s how it was before. And every time I started rotating again, it started barking at me again. This is going to be a great time for me to just get stronger in every way.”
