Rangers 2026 X-factor's playoff pedigree can help team make run despite recent struggles

You couldn't have scripted a better start to Evan Carter's major league career. In his first 23 regular-season games at the end of 2023, he posted a1.058 OPS and continued to slash .300/.417/.500 in 17 postseason games to help the Rangers win their first World Series title.

Since that miraculous start, things have not come as easily for the outfielder due to a series of fairly serious injuries and inconsistency against left-handed pitching.

But if - and it is a big "if" - the slender 6-foot-3, 190-pound speedster can stay healthy in 2026, he is primed to be the offensive weapon and X-factor that the Rangers used so deftly in 2023.

If Evan Carter can remain 100% healthy, he makes the Rangers' lineup much more potent

In 2024 and 2025, Carter suffered a stress fracture in his lower back, a right quad strain, back spasms, and a right wrist fracture.

Over those two seasons, he was limited to just 338 at-bats and registered a batting average of .222 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs. He performed better in 2025, posting a .247 average, .336 OBP, and 114 OPS+, but still appeared in only 63 games.

Word out of spring training is that Carter is a full go healthwise and is poised to deliver 2026 results that are closer to what he did when he arrived on the scene in 2023.

If he can, then the Texas lineup automatically becomes far more explosive and harder to contain for several reasons.

Evan Carter can be effective anywhere in the lineup for the Rangers

The first five spots in the Ranger lineup are pretty much etched in stone, with newly acquired Brandon Nimmo leading off, followed by Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, Jake Burger, and then the slimmed-down Joc Pederson.

The great thing about Carter, when he is healthy, is that he can hit anywhere in the lineup from 6-9, and should he play well, combined with an injury or slow start to any of the 1-5 hitters, he can move seamlessly into any of those spots.

His versatility is a weapon that the Rangers and Skip Schumaker desperately want to have available to them for an extended part of the season, and hopefully the whole campaign.

Not only does he work counts well and extend opposing pitchers, but he is a smart, tenacious baserunner who has the ability to manufacture runs via the stolen base or getting from first to third and second to home easily on a base hit.

With Carter, the talent has never been the question, but he has yet to prove that he can physically manage a full 162-game season. Hopefully for him, his teammates, and Ranger fans, the 2026 season will be a healthy one as they try to improve on a disappointing 2025 and make the playoffs.