Matt Carpenter is calling it a career.
The veteran infielder said on the “Get In The Game” podcast on Wednesday that he is stepping away following a 14-year career, most of them with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 39-year-old Carpenter was a three-time All-Star while moving between second, third and first base. Carpenter hit .259 with 179 home runs and 659 RBIs in 1,511 games, the vast majority of them in St. Louis, which selected him in the 13th round of the 2009 amateur draft following a standout college career at TCU.
Carpenter reached the majors in 2011 and was a fixture in the Cardinals’ lineup for the next decade. The left-handed hitter led the majors in hits (199), runs (126) and doubles (55) in 2013 while making his first All-Star appearance and helping St. Louis to the World Series.
Carpenter remained in St. Louis through 2021 before spending a season with the New York Yankees in 2022, then moving on to San Diego the following season.
The Cardinals brought Carpenter back in 2024. He hit .234 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 59 games.
“So fortunate that that opportunity came about, (having) the last jersey you put on being the first jersey you put on,” he said.
Carpenter said he was pretty certain going into 2024 that it would be his final season. He kept his options open last winter. Nothing developed and he realized how much time he had missed at home with his wife, Mackenzie, and their two children, both in elementary school.
“God really put it on my heart that it was time to come home,” Carpenter told podcast host Scott Linebrink, a former major league pitcher.
Carpenter called St. Louis a “special, special place to play baseball.” He ranks in the top 10 in franchise history in multiple offensive categories, including walks, hit by pitch and sacrifice flies, symbolic of Carpenter's gritty, team-first approach to his job.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
The Associated Press
