How “fired up” was Matt Carpenter to join the Yankees on Thursday?
“If they want me to load the bags on the plane, that’s what I’ll do,” Carpenter said on Thursday at Tropicana Field, where he joined the Yankees active roster after signing earlier in the day. “I’m excited to put a Yankees uniform on and be part of the best team in baseball right now. I’m just fired up to be here, whatever that role looks like.”
Carpenter arrived mid-afternoon in Tampa, and spoke briefly with the media before having to go into a hitters’ meeting, not even having the chance to change out of his street clothes.
But, that’s an opportunity he relished, and the one he was hoping for when he opted out of his minor-league deal with the Rangers last week after hitting .275 with six homers and 19 RBI in 21 games at Triple-A Round Rock – even if it meant shaving his scraggly beard down to a neat mustache.
Carpenter had been on the Yankees’ radar for a while, according to skipper Aaron Boone, the team coveting the former Cardinal for his positional flexibility and left-handed bat, and it took barely a week after Carpenter left the Rangers to find another chance in the Majors.
“When I became a free agent again, it happened fast,” Carpenter said. “Now I’m here, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.”
Carpenter spent 11 years in St. Louis, hitting .262 over 1,329 games, and he played first, second, third, and both outfield corners. He was playing mostly first base in Triple-A, but has his most career MLB time at third – good for the Yankees, who have started Marwin Gonzalez at third base four straight games due to DJ LeMahieu’s wrist injury and Josh Donaldson’s stint on the COVID IL.
He may have struggled in his final season with the Cards, hitting just .169 in 130 games as a utility player and pinch-hitter, but Carpenter was rejuvenated by his time in Round Rock, the result of signing a minor-league deal with Texas as his best option over the winter.
In fact, his swing, he said, “feels as good as it has in years.”
“I was able to put in a lot of good work in the offseason and see it translate,” Carpenter said. “Obviously it’s Triple-A pitching, but with what I was able to feel and the things I was able to have click for me, I was really encouraged by it. It kind of led to what happened here, and I’m really excited about this opportunity.”
It didn’t take Carpenter long to find his way into the lineup, either. Before the game, Boone said that Carpenter might slot in at DH as well as in the field while Giancarlo Stanton is on the IL, and when Aaron Hicks was scratched shortly before game time, Aaron Judge shifted from designated hitter to center field, and Carpenter entered the lineup hitting eighth as the DH.
Carpenter went 0-for-2 with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a run scored in his whirlwind debut, which the Yankees won 7-x thanks in part to a three-run ninth inning.
The Yankees are set to face two more lefties in the final three games of the series in Tampa, and while Carpenter started against southpaw Ryan Yarbrough almost out of necessity, don’t count out seeing him get much more action this weekend at DH or even the hot corner, as the Yankees try to manage their outfielders’ usage on the unforgiving turf of Tropicana Field.
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