Evan Carter, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter three potential faces of the franchise down the road for the Texas Rangers.
Each of that first-round pick trio received news on Tuesday. Only two got the news they wanted to hear.
Rocker and Leiter will stay up with the big league club when the season opens Thursday. Carter will be heading to Triple-A.
The pair of right-handers will fill out the Rangers’ rotation.
“I think the talent on both is obvious, and they’ve earned the right to be out here,” general manager Chris Young said Tuesday.
Carter, who dealt with back injuries last season, didn’t show enough this spring to stay up.
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When Carter was initially called up in Sept. 2023, he batted .306 with five home runs, then hit nine doubles in the postseason. It’s been bumpy since then.
“I know I can help this team win,” Carter told ESPN. “So take advantage of the opportunity to kind of have a stress-free environment to get back to what I know I can do.
“I’ve proven to myself and everybody else that I can do it, and I did it on the highest stage. So I know that it’s in there, and I’ve just got to get right back to feeling confident.”
Rocker made the team despite a rocky spring training, but he had already proven at the tail end of last season that his stuff can play in the bigs. Leiter has regressed in some ways since he was the No. 2 overall pick in 2021, but he’s gotten enough of his stuff back to earn the Opening Day spot.
Leiter and Rocker were teammates at Vanderbilt and now are MLB teammates with the Rangers.
“These are two guys that we think a lot of, great stuff and that we think can help us win ball games,” manager Bruce Bochy told ESPN.
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