SURPRISE, Ariz. — Texas Rangers outfielder Evan Carter is appreciative of those who believe he looks noticeably more muscular. But when pressed on the subject, he downplayed any physical growth.
Besides, he’d say, looks aren’t everything.
“Regardless of if I weigh more or not,” Carter said Thursday morning. “I definitely feel a lot stronger than what happened in the past.”
The past — which includes a back injury that derailed his first big league season and a broken wrist in the second — has somewhat clouded Carter’s once-top prospect status. He’s missed two-thirds of all games in the last two seasons, lost significant development opportunities to a pair of operations and must still prove that he can be an everyday player for a full campaign.
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Carter, 23, feels “really good right now” and believes that his back issues are in the past and that the wrist fracture he incurred from a hit by pitch last Aug. 21 didn’t impact his winter in a meaningful way. He reported to camp at 190 pounds and noticed an exit velocity increase in the batting cages as he ramped up for spring.
Carter said he is hitting his personal record in the cage “more than I ever have in a game.”
“That’s really cool for me,” Carter said.
He also insists that he didn’t make any significant changes to his winter workout regime.
“It was a healthy offseason,” Carter said. “I didn’t have to deal with anything this year. Obviously, my wrist was broke there for a while, but I entered the offseason just fine, so I had a full offseason to not worry about my back, not worry about this, not worry about that. I just got to train.”
A stronger Carter could go a long ways toward a complete campaign. He estimated that he loses anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds over the course of a single season and sometimes struggles to hold his weight. He also recognizes that “the more I lose weight, it’s harder to recover, it’s harder to feel good.”
The next step is maintenance. He’s wary of a high caloric diet because it’s “high inflammatory and that’s not good for my back.” Super clean diets don’t necessarily provide enough calories to hold weight, though, and he can’t lift in-season at the same clip he does in the winter.
“We’ve got a really good staff here helping me out,” Carter said. “As I’m getting older, too, I hope it’s getting easier to hold the weight. I feel really good right now, like I said, so we can keep that going.”
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