{"id":52814,"date":"2025-05-25T05:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/52814\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T05:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:09:12","slug":"how-evan-carters-back-mightve-saved-the-rangers-of-from-a-more-severe-quad-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/52814\/","title":{"rendered":"How Evan Carter\u2019s back might\u2019ve saved the Rangers OF from a more severe quad injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Evan Carter\u2019s lower back injury derailed his first full major league season and raised red flags on what had been an auspicious start to his Texas Rangers<\/a> career. It also might\u2019ve protected him from another serious injury. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think,\u201d Carter said before Saturday\u2019s game vs. the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field, \u201cthat that probably kept me from tearing my quad completely this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explain. <\/p>\n

Carter self-reported discomfort in his thigh to the Rangers medical staff last Saturday. He wasn\u2019t concerned and believed it was simply fatigue that\u2019d built up after his first legitimate every-day workload in nearly a full year. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

The Rangers initially didn\u2019t think it was severe, either, but still sent Carter for scans out of an abundance of caution. The MRI revealed a Grade 2 strain<\/a> \u2014 which is more prone to a tear than a Grade 1 strain if not addressed\u2014 and Carter was placed on the injured list last Sunday. <\/p>\n

Quad injuries, as Carter explained, \u201care real easy to play through, and you don\u2019t really know that there\u2019s anything serious wrong until it tears in half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider it a lesson in self control. Carter, 22, tried to play his way through a stress reaction\/lumbar strain in his back last season and slashed just .132\/.193\/.189 in the last 18 games that he played before the eventual shutdown. <\/p>\n

He later acknowledged that he wasn\u2019t prepared to accept that he needed extended downtime at the time of the injury. This injury was different. <\/p>\n

\u201cI only let it go a day, maybe two, before I said something,\u201d Carter said. \u201cAnd that was something really small. I didn\u2019t feel a lot of pain, it was just a weird feeling. I would think that was a better job of communication on my part this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

It helped Carter avoid a severe injury. He ran the bases Saturday at Rate Field and was cleared to participate in a live batting practice session before the game. He did not, because shortstop Corey Seager\u2019s portion of the session ran long<\/a>, but he has swung in the batting cages. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good,\u201d said Carter, who slashed .182\/.270\/.273 in the 11 games that he played after his promotion to the major leagues. \u201cIt feels like I could sprint right now, but I know they don\u2019t want me to push anything right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Saturday that Carter could start a minor league rehab assignment as soon as next weekend. That will be a full two weeks out from his initial injury. <\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Evan Carter\u2019s lower back injury derailed his first full major league season and raised red flags…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3417,2266,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-52814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brief","10":"tag-evan-carter","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-rangers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-rangers","16":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114566749735742582","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}