Texas Rangers Could Turn to Young Outfielder to Bat Leadoff This Season

The Texas Rangers have a lot of talented hitters on their team, so choosing someone to bat leadoff is not easy. However, Evan Carter is a candidate to be slotted in that spot as reported by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Carter played really well when he was called up in 2023. In 23 regular season games, the left fielder slashed .306/.413/.645. Along with that, he slugged five home runs, had 12 RBI and scored 15 runs of his own. He was so impressive that the Rangers decided to keep him on the roster for the postseason.

In the 2023 playoffs, Carter led the Rangers to a World Series title by batting .300 with an OPS of .917. He hit one home run, nine doubles and he had a couple of outfield assists on defense.

2024 was a season to forget for the 22-year-old. He played in just 45 games before going down with an injury that finished his season.

In his shortened season, Carter hit just .188 while owning an OPS of .633. All of his numbers took a tumble as his walk rate, hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity all saw declines. Some of that could be blamed on the injury, and some of it is just teams starting to figure him out after his standout debut in 2023.

Carter hit his rehab hard, and he heads into Spring Training with no restrictions on what he can do according to Kennedi Landry of MLB.com.

This is big news for the Rangers. Carter still has to be at his best, though. Wyatt Langford is expected to have a great year, and he will see a lot of time in left field. Adolis Garcia will most likely man right field, as well. That leaves center field open for Carter to play. The Tennessee native is in the 97th percentile in sprint speed, so he will have the range to captain the outfield.

As for the leadoff spot, there is some competition there. Marcus Semien led off most of the games last year, but Josh Smith saw some time in that spot, as well. Semien did not have the greatest season, so the spot could go to Carter if he performs well this spring.

The concern with Carter is he does not hit left-handed pitching well. Being a left-handed hitter himself, the matchup does not necessarily favor him. In 2024, the lefty hit just .111 off left-handed pitching, and .205 off righties. The averages are not good, but the difference is clear. During his breakout in 2023, Carter was 0-10 against lefties in the regular season and 1-10 in the playoffs.

If Carter is healthy enough to play at a high level, there is a chance for him to hit leadoff. However, it will probably come against right-handed pitching only.

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