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Published By: Sports Desk
Last Updated: March 28, 2024, 12:30 AM IST
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Evan Carter established himself as a top candidate for AL Rookie of the Year this season with how he emerged late in the Texas Rangers’ run to their first World Series title.
ARLINGTON, Texas: Evan Carter established himself as a top candidate for AL Rookie of the Year this season with how he emerged late in the Texas Rangers’ run to their first World Series title.
While that’s still true, Carter hasn’t even been the most popular rookie outfielder on his own team this spring.
Wyatt Langford followed an impressive ascent through the Rangers’ minor league system last summer, after being their first-round draft pick, hitting .365 with six homers and 20 RBI in 21 spring training games.
Both Carter and Langford will be in the starting lineup Thursday night, along with six All-Stars, when the Rangers raise the championship banner and play their season opener against the Chicago Cubs.
“Evan is ready, and he showed that last year. And we feel the same with Wyatt. We feel it has passed the test. He’s done the things we’ve wanted to see and answered the questions we’ve had. And we think he makes us a better team and ultimately showed he’s ready,” general manager Chris Young said. “They’re one of the 13 best big league players we have right now on the position player side. And so we want to win games, and we feel they give us the best chance to win.”
Langford and Carter enter the season as the top two candidates for AL Rookie of the Year, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Langford opened with a slight margin, with a 28.6% chance of winning the award with Carter on 23.8%. Only two Rangers have won the award, reliever Neftali Feliz on their AL championship team in 2010 and first baseman Mike Hargrove in 1974.
After Carter’s September call-up as an injury fill-in, making his major league debut 10 days after his 21st birthday, he hit .306 with five homers and 12 RBIs in 23 games to finish the regular season. The left fielder then reached base in all 17 of the Rangers’ postseason games, hitting .300 with an MLB postseason record nine doubles. He also had 10 walks.
Carter is still classified as a rookie as he has only 62 innings and 24 days of big league service in the regular season. He had nearly as many postseason at-bats (60).
Langford, 22, was the fourth overall pick in last summer’s amateur draft after playing in the College World Series with Florida. He then quickly rose through the Rangers’ system, hitting a combined .360 with 10 homers and 30 RBI and posting a .480 on-base percentage in 44 games spread over four different levels – from rookie ball to Triple-A. This spring, he was in the top seven across the league in batting average, homers, RBIs.
“Quiet confidence. … He was just who he was, and he dominated in spring training,” said Josh Jung, the All-Star third baseman Langford lived with in Arizona this spring. “He’s a special talent.”
Since the draft began in 1965, the only position players on the opening day roster with fewer professional games played were Pete Incaviglia with the Rangers in 1986 and John Olerud with Toronto in 1990, according to MLB.com.
Bruce Bochy, who had a World Series title in his first game with the Rangers in fourth place as a manager, has clearly been impressed by two rookies he will write into his program on opening day.
“They both have that quiet confidence about them, and the self-assurance that they belong, but not in any kind of arrogant way,” Bochy said. “They remind me of each other how they’ve dealt with it.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
