Rangers spring training update: MacKenzie Gore, Evan Carter, Cam Cauley and more

A full weekend of spring training games have taken place in Arizona and we are ready to give some early update about the first three Texas Rangers spring games.

Regardless, any of these will be overreactions and not accurate reflect that the Rangers are doomed. Even if the playoff odds seem to be doomed.

MacKenzie Gore tosses 33 pitches in spring debut

Reminder that early in spring, the box score matters little as the lefty went 1.2 innings and gave up two runs on three hits against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.

Gore looked strong, featuring more of his four-seam and slider with 25 of his 33 pitches coming with those two pitches. His fastball hit 97 mph while the slider, which he threw 11 times, sat at 87 mph and generated 50 percent chase and nearly 30 percent whiff rate.

All in all, a solid start to spring for Gore and expect him to ramp up the pitch mix, pitch count and innings to get him ready for what would likely be the Rangers' third game of the regular season on March 29 in Philadelphia.

Evan Carter's at-bats look strong, lack results

The 23-year-old is looking to make the Rangers' Opening Day roster as their starting center fielder and a strong spring would make that an even more comfortable decision for Skip Schumaker to make.

Roughly a year after hitting just .154 in 15 Cactus League games, Carter has yet to record a hit in a small sample of four at-bats this year. However, he is seeing a positive improvement hitting the ball hard.

His first in play batted ball of the spring came off his bat at 107.6 mph, he also had a110 mph line out on Sunday and drew a four-pitch walk against Colorado lefty Brennan Bernandino. Everyone knows Carter's struggles against left-handed pitchers so these are good signs.

Candidate for Rangers' minor league player of year off to scorching start

One of our spring training breakout predictions, Cauley is 3-for-7 after appearing in all three of the team's game so far this spring. Two of those hits were doubles while he also drove in Friday's spring opener.

The 22-year-old infielder comes into spring training as the organization's 13th overall prospect and spent all of the 2025 season with Double-A Frisco, playing in 113 games while batting .253 with 15 home runs, 51 RBIs, 26 doubles, 28 stolen bases and a .776 OPS.

Expected to at least start the year in Frisco, don't be surprised to see Cauley get a promotion to Triple-A Round Rock if everything is going well for him.

Race to fill Rangers' bullpen

We know the race to be the Rangers' closer is mostly coming down to three people: Alexis Diaz, Robert Garcia and Chris Martin. Of those three, Garcia is the only arm to appear in a spring game, recording just one out in the spring opener and giving up two earned runs.

As for the rest of the bullpen, Cole Winn put in a scoreless inning on Friday while recent signee Mason Thompson did the same. The two weekeend games consisted of outings from Cal Quantrill (1.1 IP, ER, BB), Luis Curvelo (1 IP, 0 ER, K each), Carter Baulmer (1 IP, 0 ER, K), Patrick Murphy (1 IP, 0 ER, K), Tyler Alexander (1 IP, 0 ER) and Ryan Brasier (0.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER).