With the 2025 Texas Rangers season having come to an end, we shall be, over the course of the offseason, taking a look at every player who appeared in a major league game for the Texas Rangers in 2025.

Today we are looking at outfielder Evan Carter.

Two years ago, one of the popular topics of conversation was which of the Rangers young stud outfielders you preferred — Evan Carter or Wyatt Langford?

Langford was the 3rd overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, tore through four levels in the minors in the two months after he signed, and posted an aggregate .360/.480/.677 slash line, making him a consensus top ten prospect heading into 2024.

Carter, meanwhile, went from being a national punchline when the Rangers took him in the second round in the 2020 draft to stud prospect (when he was healthy) to September callup, slashing .306/.413/.645 in 23 games to help get the Rangers to the playoffs, and then putting up a .300/.417/.500 slash line in the playoffs to help the Rangers win their first World Series title, making him a consensus top ten prospect heading into 2024.

During spring training in 2024, we did a Rangers Reacts survey on whether you were more excited about Langford or Carter. Langford won, but it was close, and there wasn’t really a wrong answer. The future looked bright with those two manning the outfield.

Heading into spring training 2026, the picture is much different. Langford has had his ups and downs in his first two seasons, has had a couple of injured list stints, has struggled with consistency…but he’s still put up a slash line of .247/.335/.423, good for a 121 OPS+, in 1130 plate appearances, while stealing 41 bases in 50 attempts and, surprisingly for a guy whose defense was considered mediocre in college, has been excellent defensively. In two seasons, Langford has accumulated 9.5 bWAR, and didn’t turn 24 until November.

Carter, meanwhile…Carter has had his ups and downs as well, but there have been more downs than ups. He missed most of 2024 due to back issues, started the 2025 season in the minors as he worked on a new swing to ease the pressures on his bat, got called up in early May, and ended up spending time on the injured list three different times, the final one being the result of being hit by a pitch and suffering a broken wrist, which ended his season.

Carter ended up playing in just 63 games in the majors in 2025, after logging just 45 games in 2024.

I saw someone describe 2025 as another lost season for Carter. I understand the sentiment, but I don’t really see it that way.

Yes, Carter played just 63 games, but unlike in 2024, he was pretty good in those 63 major league games. He slashed .247/.336/.392. He stole 14 bases in 16 attempts. He was excellent defensively.

Carter’s 1.9 bWAR for the season was the sixth highest among position players on the Rangers. And yes, that says something about the rest of the lineup, to a degree, but a 1.9 bWAR is generally considered a pretty decent season. Doing it Craig Gentry-style, in just 220 plate appearances, well, that makes it all the more remarkable.

(And if you don’t like bWAR, Carter put up a 1.4 fWAR, which, again, is pretty impressive for 63 games and 220 plate appearances).

The concerns about Carter coming up were whether he could stay healthy and whether he would hit lefties. Those concerns haven’t changed. The back issues, which have plagued him his entire career, were what had him spending the first six weeks of the 2025 season in AAA. He spent two weeks on the injured list in 2025 with a quad strain, and then, as mentioned above, missed the final month-plus with the broken wrist. Even if you want to chalk up the broken wrist as a fluke, the durability concerns with Carter remain.

And lefties? Carter was 2 for 23 with 4 walks and a HBP against lefties in 2025, an .087/.250/.087 slash line. For his career, Carter has an .083/.191/.083 slash line against lefthanded pitchers in 68 plate appearances. Evan Carter has yet to record an extra base hit against a lefthanded pitcher in the majors. (The regular season, anyway — he doubled off of Jake Diekman in the playoffs in 2023).

But even with those concerns, Evan Carter is a special player. He’s put up a 4.1 bWAR in 131 career games, all of them before he turned 23 years old (his 23rd birthday was the day the Rangers moved him to the 60 day injured list last year).

Maybe he’s always going to have durability concerns. Me, I’d be happy if the Rangers could get 130 healthy games out of him per season.

And maybe he’s always going to struggle against lefties. I have no doubt he’s going to put in the effort to improve against them, though, and again, he’s just 23 years old. Growth and improvement should be expected.

Maybe I’m just setting myself up for disappointment. Maybe the Grady Sizemore comps are all too accurate.

But I’m keeping the faith in Evan Carter. I’m asking the Baseball Gods to keep him healthy. Not even Cal Ripken Jr. healthy, or even Marcus Semien healthy. As I said, I’ll take 130 games a year from him.

Just give us that. Give us 130 healthy games a year from Evan Carter. Do that, and we will get to experience a special player.