ST. LOUIS–After being a franchise fixture for parts of 11 seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals declined a 2022 option on Matt Carpenter after last season, ending his time with the only organization he’s ever called home. It now appears that his next Major League home will be with the team near his physical home.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and FOX Sports, Carpenter, 36, is signing a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers. Rosenthal says Carpenter had major league offers from other teams, but decided on Texas to stay home.
Carpenter is coming off his first full season as a major league player when he primarily came off the bench, producing a career-low .169 batting average along with career lows in slugging (.275), OPS (.581) RBI (21) and HR (3).
The Cardinals signed Carpenter to a 2 year, $39 million deal in 2019, after he produced an MVP-vote worthy 36 home run campaign in 2018 that included a team-record six straight games with round trippers.
But his performance tailed off quickly in 2019, as pronounced defensive shifts and a hitting approach that did not seem to adjust to them resulted in sapped power production and reduced table-setting from atop the lineup.
Carpenter first saw action in 6 big league games in 2011, the last season the Cardinals won the World Series trophy, ironically enough, against the Rangers. His first full season in 2012 saw him garner a top 6 finish in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. In 2013 he was a vital offensive cog for the team which won the NL pennant, leading all of baseball in hits (199), runs (126) and doubles (55).
If he sticks with the Rangers, he’ll join a team that remade its middle infield in the offseason by the signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, but also a club that lost expected third base starter Josh Jung to injury.