ST. LOUIS – As he ascended the platform steps to the podium in the Cardinals’ media room, it was difficult to ignore the obvious juxtaposition behind Matt Carpenter. In front of the custom Cardinals backdrop used in most media settings, the Yankees had placed a smaller version of their own, the two team logos contrasting against each other.
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In the heart of Carpenter, a Cardinal for 11 seasons — and up until this spring, the only professional organization he had ever known — the scene was undoubtedly the same.
He started his news conference clad in Yankees navy blue with his beard gone, yet he was full of smiles as he acknowledged plenty of familiar faces in the room. But halfway through, as he recalled how excited his 5-year-old son, Kannon, was to return to St. Louis, Carpenter had to pause for several seconds, overcome with emotion, eyes brimming with tears.
“Excuse me,” he said, clearing his throat with an abashed smile. “I did not want to do that.”
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 6, 2022
For over a decade, Carpenter donned the birds on the bat, and for the majority of that decade, he welcomed glowing success. He was a three-time All-Star and won the National League Silver Slugger at second base in 2013, and the city fell in love with him simply because of the tenacious way he played the game. Yet over his final three seasons with the Cardinals, his performance regressed, and Carpenter knew the writing was on the wall. If he wanted to continue playing baseball, it wouldn’t be for the organization to which he had devoted himself.
As expected, the Cardinals did not renew his contract after the 2021 season, instead exercising a $2 million buyout, ensuring Carpenter would be a free agent for the first time. He worked vigorously throughout the offseason to improve his swing. He signed a minor-league contract with the Rangers in the spring, but with limited major-league roles available, he asked the organization for his release in May. His career, he thought, was likely done.
It was then the Yankees came calling, offering Carpenter one last chance.
For someone drafted as a five-year collegiate player in the 13th round who was never expected to make it to the big leagues, it should come as no surprise that he willed his way back to the majors once again. Carpenter is enjoying unexpected, surging success with New York, hitting .325/.434/.775 with 15 home runs in 44 games while playing multiple positions, including, somehow, right field.
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But for as much as Carpenter has embraced this opportunity with his new team in the Bronx, he knows the emotions that tie him so heavily to St. Louis will never fade. He felt them as soon as the Yankees’ team plane landed in St. Louis. He felt it when he described to a teammate that he had explored every inch of Busch Stadium, with the exception of the visiting clubhouse he was about to step foot in. Depending on the day, his son will tell his friends his dad is a Cardinal or a Yankee.
“I’m not sure he’s grasped it yet,” Carpenter said with a smile. “He just doesn’t know.”
Carpenter himself still roots for a Cardinals win, every day.
Well, except for this weekend.
“This will be the first three games since 2009 that I have not pulled for the St. Louis Cardinals,” Carpenter said. “All season, any time that we’re not playing and our schedule matches up, I’m tuned in watching the guys and checking every box score, pulling for them. I’m legitimately wanting them to win every game. This will be the first three where that’s not the case, but as soon we leave town I’ll go right back to being the same way.”
If anything, Carpenter can take solace in the feeling being so mutual. When he walked up to home plate Friday and was introduced at Busch Stadium for the first time as a Yankee, a sold-out crowd of 46,940 — the largest home crowd of the season until Saturday’s 48,581 — took to its feet for a resounding 45-second ovation. Carpenter’s wife, Mackenzie, and their two children, along with his parents and in-laws were all in attendance.
As he often does during these types of receptions, catcher Yadier Molina slowly sauntered to the front of home plate before turning around to face Carpenter and join the applause. Misty-eyed once more, Carpenter turned to the crowd, raised his helmet in acknowledgment to both sides of the ballpark and twice pounded his fist against his heart.
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After a hug and tap on the helmet from Molina, Carpenter dug in the box — no batting gloves of course — and promptly laced a one-out single to beat the shift.
For years, Carpenter had an on-field spot for these types of moments. Never once did he think he would have a moment of his own.
.@MattCarp13 gets a big ovation from @Cardinals fans as he returns to St. Louis. 👏 pic.twitter.com/fXpMW9WJsQ
— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2022
“There wasn’t anxiety or nerves, but there was just emotion,” Carpenter said toThe Athletic on Saturday afternoon. “I mean, I cried my eyes out before the game so that I wouldn’t do it during the game. It’s just overwhelming emotion.
“It’s not sadness. Well, it’s a little bit of sadness, you know, that you’re not still here. But it’s also a lot of overwhelming joy from the memories and the relationships you build, and the people that you’re around. I don’t want to say I took it for granted because that’s not true. But when you’re no longer there or a part of it, you realize just how special it really is.
“Cardinal fans never surprise me. They’re just so amazingly loyal. No matter how they might have felt towards me at the end of my career here, yesterday was something that didn’t surprise me at all that they reacted that way because they are just that great of a fan base.”
It’s no coincidence, Carpenter feels, that he ended up in an organization that parallels the Cardinals in nearly every facet.
“The similarities of these two organizations are pretty remarkable,” Carpenter said. “Being in that clubhouse doesn’t feel much different than how it was (with the Cardinals), just as far as the way both teams prepare. Both teams commit to winning. There’s some superstars in that clubhouse but there’s no ego. Everybody’s on the same page and pulling for each other.
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“Having spent your whole career in one place, you just assume that we’re unique and special, and nobody else can do this, and then you go somewhere else that has a pretty good thing going, as well. I think it’s pretty obvious why both of these organizations have been good for so long because they do a lot of similar things.”
Carpenter’s Cardinals career didn’t end the way he wanted, and that’s something he’ll never deny. It fell short of expectations in his final few years. It’s certainly easy to look at the success he’s having in New York and wonder why he didn’t turn it around sooner. But the one aspect he wants fans to know is that his decline in St. Louis wasn’t from lack of effort.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to think that all of a sudden I just now started putting the work in,” Carpenter said. “I’ve worked like crazy the last two years to get it right, I just wasn’t able to. I’m thankful I found success again, and I think a big part of that was going back down to Triple A and playing.
“I put in constant hours and worked like crazy while I was here and just kept getting punched in the mouth every time I went out there. The success just wasn’t coming.”
As difficult as it might have been to leave St. Louis, Carpenter feels change was the best thing that could have happened to his swing.
“A lot of it was getting new perspectives, getting some new thoughts, training in a different way,” he said. “Obviously, you can make a case that, for me, a change of scenery was probably a good thing. I mean, I dug myself a pretty big hole. And it’s hard to get out of one when you step in the box and you feel like you’re not in a good spot.
“I really just can’t say enough about just having the opportunity to go down (to the minors) and play and have success again because it had been so long since I performed at a level that I felt was in line with the work that I was putting in. … I didn’t really feel like I had lost much physical skill, I just felt like I needed to clean some things up. I needed to regain some confidence, I needed to play. I didn’t get a lot of consistent at-bats towards the end here. I didn’t really deserve them, either. But that helps, getting the chance to play and getting some momentum going.”
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Now Carpenter has all the momentum. The Yankees have the best record in the American League and look to be a playoff favorite. Like the Cardinals with Paul Goldschmidt, they employ the likely league MVP, a fellow by the name of Aaron Judge. And Carpenter isn’t just along for the ride. He figures to be a major factor in the final two months of the regular season and into October, when his ample postseason experience should come in plenty handy.
But when it comes to Busch Stadium, St. Louis, the Cardinals? Carpenter knows there’s no replicating the imprint they’ve left on him — forever.
“I’ll never forget this place,” Carpenter said, a smile escaping one more time. “It’ll always be home and it’ll always be family. It’ll always be the greatest place ever. But I had to move on, and now I’m in another just as great spot. It’s everything that the Cardinals were, just in the American League. It’s one of the greatest franchises in the history of sports, and it’s just an amazing place to play. I’m so thrilled to get the chance to put on the uniform and get to be a part of something so special.”
(Photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)
