Texas Rangers pitcher Carter Baumler was told he had secured a spot on the team's Opening Day major league roster by manager Skip Schumaker during a spring training exhibition game against the Kansas City Royals at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona.
Baumler relieved MacKenzie Gore in the fifth inning, allowing no runs and recording one strikeout. Schumaker visited the mound before Baumler had satisfied the three-batter minimum requirement for removal.[1]
Schumaker gathered the infielders around Baumler and delivered the news. Baumler had expected to be removed from the game.
"Somebody said, ‘I wish I got a picture of you when you turned around and saw him,’" Baumler said after the game. "Most of the time you see the manager come out, (it’s) like, ‘OK, you’re out of the game.’ I turned around, I saw him, I was just caught off guard and didn’t know what was going to happen. And then he told me that, and it was just a really cool moment. I’m definitely not going to forget that."[1][2]
Baumler, a right-handed pitcher, was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Rule 5 Draft and later acquired by the Rangers in an offseason trade. Rule 5 draftees must remain on the acquiring team's active major league roster for the full season or be offered back to their original organization.[3]
The 27-year-old Baumler was originally selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth round, 142nd overall, of the 2020 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Sam Houston State University. He has yet to appear in a major league game.[4]
Surprise Stadium, with a capacity of 10,500, serves as the spring training facility for both the Rangers and Royals.[5]
Sources
- Fox News Digital, "Texas Rangers pitcher Carter Baumler thrilled after manager Skip Schumaker tells him he's made MLB roster mid-game", March 5, 2026, https://www.foxnews.com/sports
- MLB.com, "Rangers news", March 5, 2026, https://www.mlb.com/rangers/news
- MLB.com, "Rule 5 Draft rules", accessed March 2026, https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/rule-5-draft
- Baseball-Reference.com, "Carter Baumler minor league statistics", accessed October 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=baumle001car
- Wikipedia, "Surprise Stadium", accessed October 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surprise_Stadium
