ARLINGTON — The freshly grown dark brown beard on Evan Carter’s face is a reflection of time passed. The circumstance that he once again finds himself in suggests a twisted standstill.
Carter, 23, will finish a second consecutive year on the injured list after a fractured right wrist ended his season two weeks ago. The Texas Rangers placed Carter on the 10-day injured list Aug. 22 and transferred him to the 60-day injured list Aug. 29.
The difference between this year’s injury and last year’s is in the nature of the ailment. Carter fought his own body last season when a stress reaction in his lower back sidelined him for nearly the entire second half of his first full year in the major leagues. This year, it was a freak injury — a sinker to the wrist from Kansas City Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch IV — that cost him a healthy finish.
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It’s the first broken bone that Carter has suffered. His first five professional seasons have largely been marked by recurring back injuries.
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“You can’t really control getting hit by an up-and-in fastball,” Carter said Saturday in his first public comments since the Rangers shelved him for the season two weeks ago. “It’s really unfortunate, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to look at what you can control. This is something that I can’t really control.”
It’s led to the same end nonetheless. Carter, once the top prospect in the organization who helped spark a World Series run, will miss a significant chunk of time because of an injury.
He’s played in exactly one-third (108 of 324) of the team’s games since the start of last season. The 62 games he played and the 194 at-bats he received this season were both career-highs despite the fact that he spent the season’s first month at Triple-A Round Rock and landed on the injured list three times. For reference: outfielder Wyatt Langford — drafted two months before Carter made his major league debut — has already played nearly twice as many games (254) in his two big league seasons.
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It’s limited Carter’s full bloom. He slashed .247/.336/.392 this season as a part-time player who dealt with a quad strain, back spasms and eventually a broken wrist. He only received 23 at-bats against left-handed pitchers this season as he attempts to break out of the platoon mold that he’s fallen into.
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“It’d be easy to say, ‘Oh, you’re missing time, it’s super valuable,’ but I think any time in your career, time is valuable,” Carter said. “I’m not doing any good sitting in the locker room not playing at any point in my career.”
Carter will continue to wear a soft cast on his wrist for another week and a half, but doesn’t plan to rush himself back. He has no set timeline on when he’ll resume baseball activities and is prepared for a “normal” offseason with a touch more rest than usual.
“As far as development and stuff goes, at the end of the day, I was really happy with how I was playing this year. I know the more that I play the better I’m going to get it. At the end of the day, if what I contributed this year is something that I can build off of next year, I’m going to be super happy with that.”
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Twitter: @McFarland_Shawn
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