'He'll be better because of this': Carter's slump the impetus for growth

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MINNEAPOLIS -- On Friday night, Rangers rookie Evan Carter stood in the batter’s box in the fourth inning against the Twins and watched three pitches pass him by. All three were strikes, finishing off his second of three punchouts in Texas’ loss.

By the night's end, Carter’s batting average had slipped below .200 for the first time since April 20 after going 0-for-14 over his last six games.

Carter entered the season one of the top five prospects in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, after hitting .306 with a 1.058 OPS in 23 regular-season games in 2023. He then appeared in every game of the Rangers’ World Series run, hitting .300 with a .917 OPS in the postseason. Carter finished with 75 plate appearances in the regular season and 72 in the postseason.

He seemed primed to be an American League Rookie of the Year frontrunner in 2024. But the early part of the season has been anything but a sure thing for the 21-year-old as he endures his first extended struggles in the Major Leagues.

“Welcome to The Show,” said offensive coordinator and bench coach Donnie Ecker. “This is real. At every level in the Minor Leagues, he's had a similar 30-game stretch, so it's nothing different. The only thing different about it is the brain can't use old tactics to solve these problems.

“Up here, there's no hiding the pitches, the shapes, their grades. This is fun. This is how people make great careers. How you go through this tough time is really important. He'll bounce back on the other side of this. But that's why it's tough to be an everyday guy up here. The guys that make it are able to work through these things.”

Everything about Carter has looked off this season, save for a few games -- like a trio of multihit outings against the Astros in April.

He’s walking less (12 walks in 23 regular-season games in 2023 compared to 15 walks in 44 regular-season games in ‘24) and striking out at nearly the same rate (24 strikeouts in 23 games in ‘23 vs. 42 strikeouts in 44 games).

“They’re throwing him strikes,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “They know he has really good discipline, and they’re attacking the zone. He’s probably not as aggressive as he needs to be there. You don't want to chase pitches, but at the same time, when you take as much as he is, you have a hard time pulling the trigger. It tells me he’s trying to be too disciplined up there and he’s got a lot of thoughts going on. We really, hopefully wanted to clear it up a little bit and get him back to being who he is and get a good swing going.”

Carter has no doubt worked on his swing, spending enough time with Ecker and Rangers hitting coaches Tim Hyers and Seth Connor. At this point, everybody is looking for anything to get him going.

Bochy has gone so far as to drop Carter to the nine-hole in the lineup, though he emphasized that he didn’t want that to be seen as a “demotion” for the young outfielder. He simply wants Carter to find his groove with the bat, more than any walks he could be taking.

“When at the plate, you’re there to hit,” Bochy said. “Walks are great, but it’s OK to swing the bat. It’s all right. You can’t just keep talking. There has to be adjustment. With Evan, it’s just getting back to being the guy we saw last year being great. If you’re a little too passive, when you get your pitch, you’re not ready to hit it. You gotta be ready to hit every pitch and then not swing, versus the other way around.”

When asked if they would consider sending Carter down to Triple-A to work through some things at the plate, Bochy didn’t hesitate before responding:

“I'm not going to talk about that right now. He’s going to be in left field tomorrow, and will continue to get his at-bats. That goes really pretty much for the whole lineup. This is our club. We're a good club and I don't want anybody to think that we've lost confidence. We’re going through this tough time, but you gotta deal with this, as I've said so many times.”

Bochy has reiterated multiple times that there is no concern for Carter, and the staff is confident in his ability to bounce back from this brutal stretch.

“Evan is trying to find his game,” Bochy said. “He's a young kid who is getting his first full year in the big leagues and big league pitching is not that easy. He came up and he had tremendous success. So now he's going through some times that he probably has never gone through. Sometimes you need to fail to be able to handle failure. He'll be better because of this.”