Evan Carter's follow-up to incredible Rangers debut ruined by a back injury
Evan Carter never really had a chance to follow up on a remarkable debut that helped the Texas Rangers on their way to a World Series title last year.
A slow start turned into a nagging lumbar strain in his back, which ultimately led to general manager Chris Young's recent revelation that Carter was unlikely to return in what was supposed to be the outfielder's first full season in the majors.
Carter reached base in all 17 of the Rangers' postseason games last year, hitting .300 with a postseason record nine doubles. That was after getting called up in September as an injury fill-in, making his big league debut 10 days after turning 21 and hitting .306 with five homers in 23 games.
In his final 14 games this season, during a stretch when he sat out a week without initially going on the injured list, Carter batted .053 (2 for 38) with one RBI.
His 2024 numbers, which are likely to be final in a season he was supposed to be an AL Rookie of the Year candidate: a .188 batting average with five homers and 15 RBIs. He last played May 26.
"At the end of the day, I think any player just wants to help their team win no matter what that looks like," Carter said. "I think if you look at it from that side, especially there for the last month of what I had going on, I wasn't helping the team win and that sucks.
"That's kind of when I had to accept for myself that I wasn't doing myself or the team any good," Carter said. "I pushed through it through May. I know now if I tried to push through, it's going to be the same story. I don't want to do that to myself or the team."
Carter said the back rotation required in a swing kept aggravating the injury. He expects to wait 10 weeks before picking up a bat, which all but rules out a return in the postseason if the Rangers get that far.
Texas trails Seattle and Houston in the AL West and is even further back in the wild card race.
"I've had a week or two now, I'm not swinging, it feels better," Carter said. "But that's how it was before. And every time I started rotating again, it started barking at me again. This is going to be a great time for me to just get stronger in every way."
Carter said he doesn't need surgery and expects to be ready for spring training in February. Then he can start thinking about a first full season in the majors again.
"I'm sure the kid's really disappointed with how this year's gone for him," manager Bruce Bochy said. "And we are, too, for him. He was a big part of our offense this year, and we didn't have him. That affected us. No getting around it. We saw what he can do to make us better."
Bochy also wonders about Carter missing out on a chance to make himself better.
"The toughest part is that's a year of seeing major league pitching that he hasn't had a chance to go through," Bochy said. "That's how you get better is getting reps against these guys, getting knowledge. Things like seeing lefties. It just was not there this year. That makes it tougher, I think, for him."
Carter called the starts and stops of his attempt to return mentally exhausting. And he is getting a break from that.
"Now, you've got a different goal," he said. "My offseason's going to be way longer than everybody else's. So come spring, I should be ready to go."