Evan Jason Carter (born August 29, 2002) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023.

Amateur career

Carter was born and grew up in Elizabethton, Tennessee and attended Elizabethton High School. He was an All-Conference selection in baseball in all three seasons he played. He committed to play college baseball at Duke after his sophomore year. As a junior, Carter batted .324 with four homers and 27 RBIs and was 10–2 with a 1.34 ERA and six complete games as a pitcher. Carter appeared in just 3 games before his senior season was cancelled due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professional career

Minor leagues

The Texas Rangers selected Carter in the second round, with the 50th overall selection, of the

2020 MLB draft The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season ...

and he received a $1.25 million

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

. MLB.com had not considered him a top-200 prospect and ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' had not rated him one of its top 500 prospects. Carter spent the 2021 season with the Down East Wood Ducks of the Low-A East, hitting .236/.438/.387/.825 with 2 home runs, 12 RBI, and 12 stolen bases over 32 games. In June 2021, Carter suffered a stress fracture in his lower back, which caused him to miss the remainder of that season. Carter split the 2022 season between the Hickory Crawdads of the High-A South Atlantic League and the Frisco RoughRiders of the Double-A Texas League, hitting a combined .295/.397/.489/.885 with 12 home runs, 73 RBI, and 28 stolen bases. Carter was named the Texas Rangers 2022

Tom Grieve Thomas Alan Grieve (born March 4, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball from 1970 to 1979 for the Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. He was nicknam ...

Player of the Year. He also received a 2022 minor league

Rawlings Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

. Carter was ranked as the 26th overall prospect in baseball by

, the 41st overall prospect by MLB Pipeline, and the 53rd overall prospect by '' The Athletic''s Keith Law during the 2023 off-season. Carter received a non-roster invitation to major league spring training in 2023 and returned to Frisco to open the season. Carter missed three weeks in June due to multiple arm injuries. Over 97 games for Frisco, he hit .284/.411/.451/.862 with 12 home runs, 62 RBI, and 22 stolen bases. Carter was promoted to the

Round Rock Express The Round Rock Express are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Round Rock, Texas, and play their home games at the Dell Diamond. The team is named ...

of the Triple-A

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

on August 29. Over 8 games, he hit .353/.436/.382/.818 with 3 RBI and 3 stolen bases.

Major leagues

On September 8, 2023, Texas selected Carter's contract and promoted him to the major leagues for the first time for his MLB debut that night versus the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

. Carter's debut included his first career walk, stolen base, and hit, a single off of Paul Blackburn. Carter hit his first major league home run on September 11 versus the Toronto Blue Jays

Chris Bassitt Christopher M. Bassitt (born February 22, 1989) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut with the Chicago White Sox in 2014 and played for the Oakland Athletics ...

. In 23 games in 2023, he batted .306/.413/.645/1.058 with 5 home runs, 12 RBI, and 3 stolen bases. Carter excelled for Texas in the 2023 postseason, hitting .300/.417/.500/.917 with 1 home run, 6 RBI, and 3 stolen bases in 17 games as their starting left fielder. He recorded 9 doubles, a record for a single MLB postseason. Carter and the Rangers won the

2023 World Series The 2023 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2023 season, and the 119th edition of the World Series. It was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Texas Rangers and the Na ...

, the first championship in franchise history. Carter began the 2024 campaign with Texas, hitting .188 with five home runs and 15 RBI across 45 games. He was placed on the injured list with lower–back tightness on May 28, 2024, and was transferred to the 60–day injured list on July 29.

Personal life

He is married to Kaylen Carter. He is a Christian. Evan shadowed an Endodontist for a year during high school, which inspired him to become a dentist.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Evan 2002 births Living people People from Elizabethton, Tennessee Baseball players from Tennessee Major League Baseball outfielders Texas Rangers players Arizona Complex League Rangers players Down East Wood Ducks players Hickory Crawdads players Frisco RoughRiders players Round Rock Express players