Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps: Evan Carter

Evan Carter played for two different Rangers farm teams and is now one of the organization's top-ranked outfielders.
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InsidetheRangers.com will review each of the Texas Rangers’ Top 30 prospects, as ranked by MLB.com at the end of the 2022 season.

No. 3: OF Evan Carter, Frisco RoughRiders (Double-A)

Statistics for 2022: Carter batted .295/.397/.489/.886 in 106 games (117-for-397), with 86 runs, 194 total bases, 21 doubles, 10 triples, 12 home runs and 73 RBI. He walked 64 times, struck out 81 times, stole 28 bases and was caught stealing 13 times. Carter was named Baseball America’s Rangers Prospect of the Year for 2022.

Season Transactions: Carter started the season with Class-A Hickory. He spent Aug. 28-Sept. 4 on the Hickory injured list. He was called up to Frisco on Sept. 13 and played on the RoughRiders’ run to the Texas League title.

Season Summary: Carter played just 32 games in 2021, but he built on the numbers he put up that season. He improved his batting average by nearly 60 points (.236), maintained a solid walk-to-strikeout ratio and his slugging percentage went up by nearly 100 points. With Frisco, he batted .429/.536/.714/1.250 with a home runs and six RBI in seven games. He took an enormous leap from 2021 to 2022. The fact that he’s not quite old enough to legally drink alcohol has everyone in the organization excited.

Path Through the Organization: Carter was the Rangers’ second-round pick in 2020, a truncated draft due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That also kept some scouts from getting out to see Carter before the draft. That worked to Texas’ benefit. So did the $1.25 million it offered Carter to not go to Duke to play baseball. He quickly built a reputation as a high-value prospect last season while in Low-A baseball.

What’s next: He didn’t play in the Arizona Fall League, which would have been a great opportunity for him. But he’s proven to all of baseball that he’s on a favorable track for a call-up to the Majors in the next two seasons. The Rangers likely start Carter at Frisco in 2023, unless he takes another leap this offseason and during spring training that warrants a start at Triple-A Round Rock. There’s a good chance that Carter finds his way to Round Rock at some point in 2023 and starts to slip into Rangers call-up conversations starting in 2024. When you hear about the Rangers entertaining trade offers, expect to hear Carter’s name come up frequently. But he looks like a player worth keeping at this point.

2022 Texas Rangers Top 30 Prospect Wraps:

No. 30: Josh Stephan | No. 29: Mason Englert | No. 28: Marc Church | No. 27: Danyer Cueva | No. 26: Alejandro Osuna | No. 25: Zak Kent | No. 24: Dane Acker | No. 23: Avery Weems | No. 22: Emiliano Teodo | No. 21: Jonathan Ornelas | No. 20: Gleider Figuereo | No. 19: Thomas Saggese | No. 18: Maximo Acosta | No. 17: Mitch Bratt | No. 16: Ricky Vanasco | No. 15: Yeison Morrobel | No. 14: Tekoah Roby | No. 13: Antoine Kelly | No. 12: Anthony Gutierrez | No. 11: Aaron Zavala | No. 10 Cole Winn | No. 9: Dustin Harris | No. 8: Kumar Rocker | No. 7: Luisangel Acuna | No. 6: Brock Porter | No. 5: Justin Foscue | No. 4: Owen White


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Matthew Postins
MATTHEW POSTINS

Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist who covers the Texas Rangers for Fan Nation/SI and also writes about the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. He also covers the Big 12 for HeartlandCollegeSports.com.