ARLINGTON, Texas — Carter Baumler thought he was coming out of the game. Instead, he’ll be sticking around a while.
The mound visit Baumler received from Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker wasn’t to take the rookie right-hander out of his last spring training game, but rather to let him know he made the Opening Day roster.
Schumaker came out of the dugout after Baumler retired the first two Kansas City Royals batters in the fifth inning Monday night. Texas catcher Danny Jansen and all four infielders were also on the mound when the new Rangers manager told the 24-year-old reliever he will start the season in the Texas bullpen.
“I wasn’t expecting it. I was like, why is he coming out here? And he got on the mound and told me I made the team,” Baumler said during an in-game TV interview on the Rangers Sports Network. “I mean, honestly, I thought I was like getting taken out of the game. … Obviously, whenever the manager comes out, you’re usually done.”
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Jansen patted his catcher’s mitt on Baumler’s chest, and the infielders offered their congratulations. Baumler, looking to make his major league debut after never pitching above Double-A, had a big smile on his face but composed himself to strike out Isaac Collins swinging on a 96.8 mph fastball to end the inning.
It was a memory of a lifetime that he was able to share with his parents, even though they were watching on television about 1,200 miles away.
“They were tearing up a little bit,” Baumler said before the Rangers’ final spring training game on Tuesday. “Just a cool moment for like, you know, myself and the family and extended family.
“I’m just so grateful that Skip did it that way. I couldn’t have dreamed of another or a better way to, you know, have that happen.”
Rangers shortstop Corey Seager, a two-time World Series MVP, said umpires were yelling at Schumaker thinking that he was trying to remove the pitcher before facing the required minimum three batters.
“That’s for sure cool. I mean, I’ve never seen that before,” Seager said of how Schumaker shared the news. “What an awesome way. … A little moment like that, it was a big moment for the whole team.”
In his eight spring training games, Baumler allowed one earned run and struck out 10 over 9⅓ innings.
Baumler hugged Schumaker when he got back to the dugout after the third out, then was greeted with high fives from teammates.
“You want to make it as memorable as you can,” Schumaker said, according to MLB.com. “I’ll never forget when I got called up — the exact moment, the exact game, in Memphis, Tennessee. … It was just like the most amazing time. I was just trying to think of a special way to tell him.”
Like Baumler, Schumaker also heard from family and friends. Among those reaching out to the manager was Denny Sheaffer, who was the Triple-A manager for Memphis when he pulled Schumaker out of a game in June 2005 to tell the outfielder that he was being called up by the St. Louis Cardinals for his big league debut.
“He shot me a text talking about that first call-up,” Schumaker said Tuesday. “I remember everything about it, so you try to make it as memorable. … I’m just really happy his parents got to see it.”
Baumler was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth round of the 2020 amateur draft out of high school in Iowa and had Tommy John surgery soon after that. He pitched in the Orioles organization from 2022 to 2025 but was left off their 40-man roster last fall.
He was scooped up by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round of the Rule 5 draft at the winter meetings in December and traded to Texas the same day.
“A few years ago, I never would have expected this,” Baumler said. “Looking back … I’m glad I kept my head down and kept hammering away.”
Now Baumler, whose brother pitches at nearby TCU, is in the big leagues.
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about the whole spring. Just making the team has never only been on my mind,” Baumler said. “I’ve got other goals and aspirations past just making a big league team. So yeah, I want to be able to help the team.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
