{"id":599385,"date":"2026-03-01T06:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599385\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:09:34","slug":"rangers-bullpen-hopeful-carter-baumler-continues-to-impress-against-tough-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599385\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers bullpen hopeful Carter Baumler continues to impress against tough competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 Texas Rangers manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2025\/09\/30\/texas-rangers-new-manager-skip-schumaker\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2025\/09\/30\/texas-rangers-new-manager-skip-schumaker\/\">Skip Schumaker<\/a> said earlier this week that Rule 5 draftee Carter Baumler will see more opportunities earlier in games to better assess <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-opening-day-roster-evan-grant-carter-baumler-mark-canha\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-opening-day-roster-evan-grant-carter-baumler-mark-canha\/\">how the right-hander fares against a higher level of competition<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:190 \/ 127\" class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-related-story-module__2UraD flex-none object-cover dmnc_images-modern-image-module__QFaG- max-w-full h-auto text-white dmnc_images-modern-image-module__9Zlll bg-gray-light object-contain dmnc_images-modern-image-module__P3kZ4 w-full\" width=\"190\" height=\"127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ZWCBQMJEEFFJNG6ARLQTBBUNF4.jpg\" alt=\"Dallas Morning News sportswriter Evan Grant (center) laughs as writers interview Texas...\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">How\u2019s this for a taste? Baumler faced (and struck out) arguably baseball\u2019s best second baseman when Ketel Marte and the Arizona Diamondbacks came to town Tuesday. On Saturday, vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers at Surprise Stadium, he faced a group of big leaguers from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2025\/11\/01\/los-angeles-dodgers-world-series-champions-game-7\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2025\/11\/01\/los-angeles-dodgers-world-series-champions-game-7\/\">the back-to-back champion\u2019s<\/a> roster that included their high-profile free agent signee. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Baumler, who has never pitched above the Double-A level, pitched 1 2\/3 scoreless innings vs. the Dodgers and has yet to allow a run in three Cactus League games. He gave up two hits, one of which was a soft single from $240 million man Kyle Tucker, and struck out a batter in relief of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-jack-leiter-spring-training-la-dodgers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-jack-leiter-spring-training-la-dodgers\/\"> right-handed starter Jack Leiter<\/a> as he continue to vie for a big league bullpen job. <\/p>\n<p>Rangers<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__3beff secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-20 text-center text-gray-dark\">Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__8MgJa flex flex-wrap text-gray-dark secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-10 text-center justify-center\">By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/terms-of-service\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:190 \/ 127\" class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-related-story-module__2UraD flex-none object-cover dmnc_images-modern-image-module__QFaG- max-w-full h-auto text-white dmnc_images-modern-image-module__9Zlll bg-gray-light object-contain dmnc_images-modern-image-module__P3kZ4 w-full\" width=\"190\" height=\"127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772345374_637_W65B3DVODNAXLK2ZOAGNAV4CPU.jpg\" alt=\"Texas Rangers president of baseball operations, Chris Young watches during a spring training...\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re trying to put me into more game-like situations that\u2019re going to come in the season,\u201d Baumler said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing, and I\u2019m just trying to take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">He landed six curveballs for called strikes, including one vs. Tucker, and struck catcher Dalton Rushing out on three pitches. His curveball has generated nine total whiffs or called strikes in two games against big league hitters and has only been hit into play twice on 26 throws. His mid-to-high 90\u2019s fastball generated a swing-and-miss vs. the Dodgers and his 89 mph slider has been thrown for called strikes. Those, alongside what Schumaker described as a \u201creal\u201d curveball, create a kind of arsenal that the Rangers don\u2019t have in their bullpen. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a plus pitch for me,\u201d Baumler said of his curveball. \u201cI mean the goal is obviously to throw everything for a strike. Today I fell behind a little bit. Usually the curveball I can kind of trust to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-subject-tag-list-only-list-only-module__BZO7y link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-spring-training-observations-dodgers-alejandro-osuna-sam-haggerty\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3 Texas Rangers observations: Osuna leaves on a high note; waiver-claim RP brings the heat<\/a><a class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-subject-tag-list-only-list-only-module__BZO7y link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/2026\/02\/28\/texas-rangers-los-angeles-dodgers-world-series-kyle-tucker-skip-schumaker-brandon-nimmo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rangers-Dodgers matchup highlights stark difference between last two World Series winners<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said earlier this week that Rule 5 draftee Carter Baumler&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3417,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-599385","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-mlb","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-rangers","15":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116152433126479306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599385","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=599385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}