Evan Carter

The back of Carter's baseball card looks pristine and he shined on a big postseason stage, but there is one glaring weakness to acknowledge: his inability to hit lefties. He should be a fantastic option near the top of the lineup against righties and has the speed to steal 20-plus bases. Carter's hard-hit data is middling, especially for a top prospect who is big-league ready. However, he is a master at getting the barrel to the ball and taking opposite-handed pitchers out to the pull side. Carter's 13.4 O-Swing% was incredibly low, especially for a rookie hitter who also slugged .645 in 75 MLB plate appearances. For now, he is a premium platoon prospect. He went hitless with one walk and six strikeouts in 11 plate appearances against big-league lefties and notched one extra-base hit (a double) while striking out 28 times in 106 plate appearances against southpaws at Double-A and Triple-A. The Rangers are loaded, so Carter may platoon, but he could still go 15/20 with a high OBP and won't turn 22 until August.

Carter, whom the Rangers selected with the 50th overall pick in 2020, finally got to play nearly a full minor-league season and proved himself to be one of the game's top outfield prospects in the process. A stress fracture in his back limited him to 32 games at Single-A in 2021, but his approach as an 18-year-old (.438 OBP, 34 walks, 28 strikeouts) jumped out as a strength. Carter followed that up with a .295/.397/.489 slash line, 17.1 K% and 13.5 BB% while playing 100 games at High-A and six games at Double-A. He hit 12 home runs and went 28-for-41 (68.3% success rate) on stolen base attempts while being one of the youngest hitters at each stop. Carter clearly projects as a leadoff hitter down the road, it's just a matter of projecting how much power he will develop and how many bases he will steal annually. His 28.6 Hard% was fine for a player his age (turned 20 in August) with his plate skills, but that success rate on the bases is a bit discouraging. There's 15-homer/20-steal upside for now, but Carter still has room to improve or regress in the next couple years as he faces better pitching.