{"id":904103,"date":"2026-11-03T06:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T06:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904103\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T06:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T06:30:09","slug":"evan-carter-unlikely-to-be-ready-for-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904103\/","title":{"rendered":"Evan Carter Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rangers center fielder\u00a0Evan Carter<\/a> underwent labrum surgery on his right hip last week, president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters on Monday (link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com<\/a>). Young said that while Carter is expected to play for a good portion of the 2027 season, he\u2019s not likely to be ready for Opening Day \u2014 presuming the season itself starts on time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s yet another injury setback for Carter, who battled back issues early in his career. He had a relatively healthy \u201926 campaign in terms of avoiding the injured list, only missing two weeks in the middle of June with a right oblique strain. Carter easily established new career highs in games played (141) and plate appearances (455) but slogged through a miserable offensive season. He batted .194\/.288\/.315 with nine home runs.<\/p>\n

Among hitters with 400+ PAs, only Cal Raleigh<\/a> and\u00a0Matt McLain<\/a> had a lower batting average. Carter was fifth from the bottom in slugging and in the bottom 15 in on-base percentage despite a strong 10.3% walk rate. He struck out a quarter of the time and made a lot of weak contact. Carter also continued to struggle mightily in limited looks against left-handed pitching; he\u2019s a .110 hitter and still doesn\u2019t have an extra-base hit against a southpaw in his major league career (145 plate appearances).<\/p>\n

The Rangers should\u2019ve been in the center field market even if Carter were fully healthy. His injury only makes that a more urgent need. Young acknowledged as much, at least in the immediate future. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t change our belief in Evan long term, but it does change our short-term plans that we need to have a backfill (with) somebody who can certainly fill in or play a very solid center field and hopefully contribute offensively,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

The alternative would be to play Wyatt Langford<\/a> up the middle. Langford is an above-average runner who has posted plus defensive grades in his 523 1\/3 career innings as a center fielder. He\u2019s among the game\u2019s best defensive left fielders and was a Gold Glove finalist in the corner this year. Langford should be capable of playing a quality center field, though the Rangers would still need to add a corner outfielder opposite\u00a0Brandon Nimmo<\/a>. They\u2019re otherwise looking at the likes of\u00a0Alejandro Osuna<\/a> and\u00a0Cam Cauley<\/a> playing regular roles.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s before considering the idea that even a healthy Carter might not be a long-term answer. Although Young stressed publicly that they\u2019re still bullish on the 24-year-old\u2019s future, he\u2019s a career .215\/.307\/.368 hitter who at least needs a right-handed hitting platoon partner. Texas could continue giving top shortstop prospect Sebastian Walcott<\/a> reps in the outfield<\/a>, but there\u2019s also the possibility that they try to line up a\u00a0Corey Seager<\/a> trade this winter.<\/p>\n

Luis Robert Jr.<\/a>,\u00a0Daulton Varsho<\/a>,\u00a0Trent Grisham<\/a>,\u00a0Tyrone Taylor<\/a>, Cedric Mullins<\/a> and Myles Straw<\/a> are options in a weak free agent center field class. Robert and Taylor are righty bats who could shield Carter from southpaws when he\u2019s healthy. Grisham is probably better suited for a corner spot at this stage of his career (though Texas could sign him to play left and use Langford in center). Taylor Ward<\/a> is available as another left field option. The trade market could feature the likes of Steven Kwan<\/a>,\u00a0Jake McCarthy<\/a>,\u00a0Jarren Duran<\/a>,\u00a0Colton Cowser<\/a> and\u00a0Dane Myers<\/a>. Texas also has needs at catcher, designated hitter\/first base, and potentially second base depending on their plan for Walcott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers center fielder\u00a0Evan Carter underwent labrum surgery on his right hip last week, president of baseball operations Chris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[104338,363,99],"class_list":["post-904103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-evan-carter","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}