Chris Carter likely headed back to AL West
By Jason Burke
Chris Carter finds himself free to sign wherever he may please after the New York Yankees released him last week. According to Jon Heyman, there are two teams that are showing some interest, and both reside in the AL West.
From Heyman’s report, “While the Brewers considered a reunion, the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics are two teams ready to make something happen. As a result, it is “likely” that Carter ultimately signs with either Texas or Oakland.”
With the roster moves that the Oakland Athletics have been making of late, it’s hard to imagine that they’d bring in Chris Carter, even though he’s a familiar face for the A’s. There have been rumors surrounding current A’s first baseman Yonder Alonso for weeks now, and the belief is that he will in fact be moved at the non-waiver trade deadline. His departure would open up playing time for Ryon Healy or Matt Olson at first, both seemingly parts of the Oakland rebuild.
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Adding Chris Carter on anything other than a minor league deal just doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense for a team that traded away yet another fan favorite, and the last link to their recent playoff runs on Sunday. With the backlash the front office is dealing with from the fans, their plan is to go full rebuild. Not quite sure how Carter would fit into a full rebuild. That said, he was with the Astros when they turned things around in 2015 and the Brewers are one of the best surprises of 2017. Maybe he’s magic.
As for the Rangers, their first basemen this season have accumulated a 1.1 fWAR, 19th in baseball and a wRC+ of 91, 26th in baseball. In the pinstripes, Carter tallied a wRC+ of 73 and an fWAR of -0.6 while slugging eight homers and holding a strikeout rate of 36.5%.
That said, the Rangers are more than likely looking at Carter as a replacement for Mike Napoli if they’re considering him. Napoli has a wRC+ of 83, a fWAR of -0.4 and a strikeout rate of 32.3%. Those are all fairly similar to what Carter has put up this season, so maybe they’re forecasting a bit with Napoli, at age 35, and Carter, 30, and banking on marginal improvements the rest of the way compared to their current options.
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Both are right-handed bats and would be splitting time with Joey Gallo, a lefty. It’ll be interesting to see how this one shakes out. If you really wanted to hedge your bets on Carter landing in the AL West, the Seattle Mariners (28th) and Los Angeles Angels (30th) also rank at the bottom of the league in fWAR from their first basemen, and Carter would arguably be an improvement for the Halos.