Skip Schumaker's first Rangers Opening Day lineup features a notable omission

Opening Day is finally here. The Texas Rangers will begin the 2026 regular season with a matchup against the Phillies at 3:15 p.m. CST at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

As we've already known for several days, Nathan Eovaldi will make the start on the mound for the Rangers today, and left-hander Cristopher Sánchez is slated to make the start for the Phillies.

The Rangers' Opening Day lineup was just revealed. Most of the starting nine were expected to be in the lineup, including former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen. However, there is one notable absence from Schumaker's first Opening Day lineup.

Evan Carter noticeably absent from Rangers' Opening Day lineup

Carter has struggled significantly against southpaws throughout his MLB career, posting an awful .083/.191/..083 slash line with a 30.9% strikeout rate over 68 plate appearances. Carter's struggles vs. lefties, paired with the fact that Sánchez, who posted 8.0 bWAR and a 2.50 ERA with 212 strikeouts across 202 innings last season, is among the best starting pitchers in baseball, is why Schumaker opted to leave Carter out of today's lineup in favor of switch-hitter Sam Haggerty, who hit .318/.376/.435 over 94 plate appearances against southpaws last season. Against lefties during spring training this year, Carter went 0-for-8 with three walks and one strikeout.

While Schumaker's decision to omit Carter from today's lineup makes sense, it's a bit surprising, considering the Rangers manager has made it clear he wants to give Carter more opportunities against lefties. Sure, Carter has struggled immensely vs. southpaws, but he only has 68 career plate appearances against lefties at the MLB level.

Hopefully, Carter's omission from today's lineup isn't simply because Sánchez is a lefty, but because he is arguably the best left-hander in the game besides Tarik Skubal.

If Carter receives more opportunities to face lefties and becomes even just an average hitter against them, his value would increase substantially.

Carter will likely enter today's game off the bench later in the matchup, and he will undoubtedly be in the starting lineup for Game 2 of the series between Texas and Philadelphia on Saturday, with a righty in Aaron Nola slated to make the start for the Phillies.

Whether Carter is in the starting lineup for the final game of the series on Sunday will be very telling as to how often the team plans to use him against lefties this year, with southpaw Jesús Luzardo expected to make the start on the mound for Philadelphia. While he isn't on Sánchez's level, Luzardo is still known to be among the best lefty starters in the game.