You need to know these four Rangers for the 2023 World Series
ARLINGTON, Texas — There’s no Monument Park or Green Monster here, no Elysian Park overlooking a gorgeous downtown skyline. Yet Texas Rangers baseball has a slowly emerging heritage, nonetheless, and the latest edition will be on stage for this 119th World Series.
The Rangers are in their third World Series in 13 years, tantalizingly close to the top but still leaving fans across North Texas thirsty for a championship. And since this club’s climb was rapid, perhaps you’re not aware of the pieces fusing together a squad that won its first seven games of the postseason, is 8-0 on the road and 9-3 overall.
Consider these four Rangers you ought to know more about, before they steal the spotlight on baseball’s biggest stage as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks:
Evan Carter: Dog days are over
It’s been a stunning couple months for Evan Carter, the Rangers outfielder who was summoned to the big leagues on Sept. 13, seized a starting role in time for the playoffs and started his postseason career reaching base in 13 of his 21 plate appearances, driving the Rangers toward the World Series.
FOLLOW THE MONEY: MLB player salaries and payrolls for every major league team
But Carter misses J.P.
J.P. is the Giant Schnauzer that Carter and his wife Kaylen toted around the Texas League as Evan dominated Class AA pitching. And then Carter was promoted to Class AAA Round Rock (Texas), where they travel by plane – and J.P. had to go back to their Elizabethton, Tennessee home.
Yet as J.P. received the finest care a shaggy canine could hope for, Evan and Kaylen’s life only sped up. They never settled in Round Rock, never even played a home game there, because Carter was summoned to the Rangers after just eight games in Class AAA.
Now, home is a hotel across from Globe Life Field. Creature comforts are few, and the Carters do laundry at teammates’ homes, though they’re hesitant to wear out any welcomes.
And though a rookie’s salary is no pauper’s pay, the DoorDash bills have been "a fortune," says Carter.
Funny thing, though: They’re having the time of their lives.
"I’ve definitely had to make it a point to kind of slow things down," says Carter, who turned 21 in August. "August feels like yesterday and here we are – it’s almost November now. It’s flown by. Just trying to slow things down and be really thankful for where we’re at.
"My wife and I are good at (road life) now, man. Always bring your own pillow. But gosh, it’s been fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The people that have been here have been great to me as far as making me feel welcome and comfortable. That’s a big part of a rookie coming up – the veterans making a rookie feel at home. Gosh, you gotta settle in quick or you’re not gonna adapt and be able to perform.
"It’s a you-better-figure-it-out kinda thing."
Oh, he’s figuring it out.
Carter batted .307 with a 1.059 OPS in his three weeks in the major leagues, than became a playoff star, rapping three extra-base hits in a two-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, and keying a Game 1 ALCS victory over the Houston Astros with a leaping catch and a hustle double.
Now, the biggest stage so soon in his career.
A surprise second-round pick in the 2020 draft, this is by far the longest professional season of Carter’s young career. He carries the dreams of his hometown with him: The coordinates of Elizabethton are tattooed on his right wrist, reminding him of a place to which he’ll soon return – perhaps with a World Series title in tow.
And J.P. will be waiting.
"I miss him," says Carter. "We haven’t been home since February. It’s been forever. It’s definitely something you miss.
"But it’s also something that can wait a couple weeks.”
Josh Sborz: Better seen, not heard
The mentality is better suited for a player out of options, hanging on to a roster spot, posting a 5.50 regular-season ERA on a playoff team, wondering what might be next in a career where liftoff is elusive.
It's the discomfort level to which Josh Sborz has grown accustomed, and so he embraces it even as he's helped the Rangers to the World Series thanks to stellar work as a playoff set-up man.
"Generally, in the regular season, I’m pretty stressed out, too. I try to take every game the same," he says. "If you pitch bad, people aren’t going to like you. If you pitch bad in the playoffs, people aren’t going to like you.
"I think the goal for any reliever is when the game ends, you don’t want the reporters talking about you. That’s kind of an odd goal, but the only time reporters talk about relievers is when we don’t do our job."
Well, that's not entirely true.
Sborz has been so dominant in these playoffs – especially for a fellow with a career 5.08 ERA – that his postgame time is in greater demand. He's made nine postseason appearances and given up just one run – a 1.04 ERA – while taking down large chunks of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings in front of closer Jose Leclerc.
The playoff results are out of sync with the regular-season pedigree, admittedly hampered by injured list stints because of hamstring and ankle injuries. Less so when you take into account a crackling 97 mph fastball along with a slider he throws almost as much.
"When he’s been healthy, he’s been dynamite," says Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux. "When he’s healthy and banging that strike zone, he’s got more than they got.
"He knows what he wants to do to each hitter, so the preparation’s great. And then when it comes down to a matter of execution and you’ve got that kind of firepower and execute, the odds are in your favor, big-time."
Even if Sborz would prefer to move in silence, the better to maintain his mojo.
Jonah Heim: An invaluable cog
Jonah Heim made his major-league debut at 25, and his first All-Star team at 28, and Nathan Eovaldi wants to make sure his catcher realizes the best is still in front of him.
Heim isn't exactly a late bloomer in the baseball sense; progress often is not linear in this game of frustration, and breakouts can happen at any time. But consider Heim's skill set: A switch-hitting, power-hitting catcher who rapped 46 extra-base hits in 131 games, is an above-average pitch framer and keeps baserunners honest.
Eovaldi, 33, is appreciative.
"He gives me that confidence that I can bounce those pitches down in the dirt and he's able to block them," says Eovaldi, the Game 1 World Series starter. "And as the season has gone on he's gotten more comfortable with the guys we have. His confidence has grown.
"And it's fun to see young guys having the success he's having and for the year he's having as well."
Heim is grateful for the opportunity. A fourth-round pick in 2013, his rise to World Series backstop was a decade in the making, with stops in the Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Oakland organizations, making his debut in 2020, before a trade just before spring training in 2021 landed him in Texas.
He slugged a pair of home runs in the AL championship series conquest of Houston, and will find himself in the middle of the order in this Fall Classic.
"I can’t thank Oakland enough for giving me my shot in the big leagues," says Heim. "But I think getting traded over here was the best thing to ever happen to my career: I got the shot to play every day, got to prove myself and I don’t think I’ve ever looked back."
Tim Hyers: Painting another masterpiece
Make no mistake: It's the players who achieve on the field, whose athletic ability allows them to catch up to a 98 mph fastball, whose hand-eye coordination enables them to react to an offspeed pitch in a split second.
But a skilled sounding board can make a good group of hitters collectively great.
That brings us to Tim Hyers, the Rangers' hitting coach who is once again presiding over a club that's rampaging through the postseason.
Hyers was the Boston Red Sox's hitting coach from 2018-2021, and in his first year working with stalwarts such as Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, the Red Sox waged an epic October, winning 11 of 13 games to claim the World Series title.
These Rangers remain four wins away, but the dominance is similar: Nine wins in 12 games, and a stunning 21-run outburst over Games 6 and 7 to finish off Houston in the ALCS.
He knows the swing in and out. He’s constantly studying film, whether it be on you or other hitters.
"If he says something to you that maybe doesn’t click the first time, he’ll try to find a different way of explaining it," says DH Mitch Garver, who hit a grand slam in the ALDS and is 10 for 34 with 11 RBI this postseason.
"It’s just really nice to talk to him about hitting."
And Hyers admittedly has a nice canvas to work with.
From Nos. 1-2 hitters Marcus Semien and Corey Seager all the way down to No. 9 hitter Leody Taveras, who turns the lineup over in great shape, the Rangers are a devastating proposition for opposing pitchers. They've scored seven or more runs in five playoff games, relentless in their discipline and with power throughout the lineup.
"I’ve said it to a couple of my friends recently: If you shake a magic eight ball out of all 13 roster players and tell me that person is going to have two homers and drive in six, the answer is yes," says first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
Says Garver: "Lot of damage can be done. You have to beat us in the zone. For the most part, we don’t chase too much. We have speed, we have on-base skills, we can slug. Just a really good overall team."
