Rangers have bittersweet feelings watching Evan Carter's electric run around the bases

Inconsistency from the Texas Rangers offense has been the name of the game this season, and it's gotten no better of late. The returns of Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford were supposed to provide a boost, but largely that hasn't happened in the four games the team has played with these two stars back in the fold.

Seager and Langford combined to seal the 3-2 victory for the Rangers on Friday, June 6, but then the team was shut out on Saturday, exploded for 10 runs on Sunday, and then after Monday's off day could only scratch across two runs in the series opener against the Kansas City Royals last night, which ended in a 5-3 defeat.

Texas's output last night in Kansas City would have been even more pathetic if not for Evan Carter. The 23-year-old singled with two outs in the top of the fourth, and then willed a run onto the board all by himself. The speedster forced a throwing error by Royals hurler Stephen Kolek on a pickoff attempt that put Carter on second. He'd then steal third, leading to another throwing error by catcher Carter Jensen, allowing Carter to score.

It was a thrilling display of talent and athleticism, but at the same time, it was a great cause of frustration for fans who had grown tired of waiting for Carter to consistently tap into his immense talent.

Evan Carter's speed is dazzling, but the Rangers need more consistency to unlock another aspect of their offense

At 28.8 feet per second, Carter possesses 90th-percentile sprint speed that we often see on display in the outfield, where he excels defensively. It was on full display as he took his thrilling jaunt around the bases, too.

Unfortunately, Carter doesn't get many opportunities to show off his speed and wreak havoc like that on the basepaths. Despite his 12.4% walk rate, Carter owns a paltry .288 OPS, mostly because he's hitting just .174.

Carter simply doesn't get enough hits. A lot of that has to do with him squaring balls up at a 30th percentile rate. Carter's ideal attack angle rate is at just 44.1%, a career-worst. His uppercut swing has resulted in a 50.8% fly ball rate, of which many are of the lazy can-of-corn variety, including an egregious 11.9% infield fly rate. The cost there has been another career-worst in line drive rate at just 15.9%.

The Rangers could use more fundamentals and a small-ball kind of approach to boost the offense and manufacture runs. The lineup isn't devoid of power, but a guy like Carter, specifically, needs to change his approach and level out his swing, looking for singles instead of consistently swinging for the fences.

There might be some hope, though. Carter has spent some extra time working on bunting recently, and the idea of him leaning into his speed more frequently is ideal. This is a guy with 30-plus stolen base potential, but he needs to focus on getting on base to get there.

On the other hand, embracing that small ball philosophy is still a work in progress for the once-promising youngster. Prior to his baserunning wizardry, he came up with first and third and no outs in the second inning, and rapped a groundball to third that led to Ezequiel Duran getting cut down at home on the fielder's choice, setting the scene for the rally to die.

Carter has the opportunity to unlock a new dimension for the offense that could lead to some more consistency. If he does, he could be a dynamic weapon. But it will require a serious change in approach that he hasn't displayed the ability to execute consistently. Until he does, we'll be left with these thrilling flashes in between long periods of disappointment.

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