How the New York Yankees Saved 3X All-Star Matt Carpenter’s MLB Career: “Three Days Later, Got a Phone Call From…”

Talented individuals can be found everywhere, which can make following one’s passion harder. The path to satisfaction is full of bumps in the road, especially when it comes to sports personalities. Every athlete wants to get a chance to play at the top-most level. But perhaps what hurts the most is coming close to that level, only to have one’s hopes and dreams dashed. Matt Carpenter came close to becoming one such individual.

He thought he had played his last game as a professional baseballer more than a few times in his career. A talented infielder, the 37-year-old spent the majority of his first few years with the St. Louis Cardinals. There, he was selected for not one, not two, but three All-Star games. When the time came to move on, nothing went smoothly. He thought he was done, but then the New York Yankees stepped in.

Putting on pinstripes saved Matt Carpenter

Major League Baseball is full of storied franchises that have made a name for themselves. But the Yankees are, without a doubt, one of the most iconic teams to ever grace the MLB stage. So perhaps it was only right that it was this historic team that offered Carpenter a chance at salvaging his major league career.

The Yankees were the talk of the town for many reasons in 2022 and Carpenter accounted for many of those headlines. “Twice in my life, I walked off a baseball field thinking that I had played my last game. The first time was in college, I didn’t think I’d get drafted. Last year, in Triple-A with the Texas Rangers, I called my parents, I called my wife, I called my brother, I called my sister, told them that this was it,” the ballplayer said in a discussion with The Chris Rose Rotation.

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He continued, “I had walked off the field; I had already called the GM Chris Young, and let him know that I was opting out. They made the decision that they were not gonna call me up and I had walked off the baseball field for what I thought was the last time. Three days later, got a phone call from Brian Cashman and was in the lineup with the Yankees.”

As it turned out, the team and the player were a perfect match because as soon as the ink on the deal dried, Carpenter proceeded to break long-forgotten franchise records.

Carpenter joined the exclusive company of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio

The stats don’t lie. In his one and only season with the Yankees, the formerly rejected infielder brought more than his A-game to the diamond. And some of those mind-boggling feats were achieved in games against the Bronx’s archrival, the Boston Red Sox.

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Last year, for the second time in the season, Carpenter hit seven runs in a single game. Not only that but he was also the first outfielder since 1940 with seven RBIs in a game against the Red Sox. The only players in Yankees history to have ever accomplished these achievements were, of course, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.

The mustache man may have joined the San Diego Padres, but New York will never forget him!