New Padres Slugger Matt Carpenter Sees Similarities with Former World Series Team
Just before Christmas, the Padres signed infielder/designated hitter Matt Carpenter to a one-year, $6.5 million deal with a player option for 2024. Carpenter spent the first 11 years of his career with the Cardinals before starting 2022 in the Rangers' minor-league system and eventually signing with the Yankees, where he had a remarkable resurgence. In 154 plate appearances, Carpenter hit 15 homers and posted a superb 1.138 OPS (217 OPS+) in helping New York to the ALCS.
Carpenter has never won a World Series; the Cardinals lost in 2013, the only time he has played in the Fall Classic. But as Bob Nightengale reports in USA Today, Carpenter has seen a World Series winner up close and personal and he sees a lot of similarities between them and this current Friars group.
The toppling of the mighty Dodgers brought back vivid, and painful, memories for new Padres infielder/DH Matt Carpenter. He and Padres starter Michael Wacha were on that St. Louis Cardinals team that thoroughly dominated the Chicago Cubs since they were drafted by the organization, right up to the 2015 postseason when they lost to the Cubs in the NL Division Series.
“Chicago was like our baby brother for 10 years,’’ Carpenter said, “and then suddenly it was, 'Whoa! Baby brother is beating us up.’
“The very next year, they win the World Series. We didn’t even make the playoffs. Everything changed.
“It can be the same thing here. This team reminds me of that Cubs team with all of that talent. The script is ready.’’
Carpenter has seen the baseball success cycle in person, so when he says he sees similarities, it's worth listening. The Cubs didn't sustain their success nearly as long as they would have liked, dropping back out of first place just two years after their 2016 World Series title. But step one is to replicate the World Series; then owner Peter Seidler and general manager AJ Preller can figure out how to keep it going.
