The Padres added some clout to their lineup on Tuesday, reportedly agreeing to a two-year, $12 million deal with a veteran infielder/outfielder Matt Carpenter. Carpenter, a customer of SSG Baseball, can opt out of the contract after the 2023 season by declining a 2024 player option. The contract pays Carpenter a $3 million signing bonus and $3.5 million salary for the 2023 campaign, and he has to settle for a $5.5 million player option next winter. He can also reportedly earn $500,000 in bonuses for getting 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 and 550 record appearances respectively in both seasons of the contract.
Carpenter, who turned 37 last month, enjoyed one of the most notable rebound campaigns in recent memory last season. Carpenter, a three-time All-Star with the Cardinals, appeared to be on the downturn as he posted a combined batting line of .176/.313/.291 in 418 plate appearances with St. Louis from 2020-21.
Last offseason, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal detailed how Carpenter reinvented himself by taking a data-driven approach to batting and soliciting feedback from players like Joey Votto, Matt Holiday and a private hitting coach as he overhauled his swing and overall approach to the plate. Rangers were intrigued enough to sign him for a minor league contract.
We often see stories of veterans making changes late in their careers, but few have reached Carpenter’s level of success. After hitting .275/.379/.613 in 21 games with the Rangers’ Triple-A partner, Carpenter was released (oops) by Texas and signed a major league contract with the Yankees, for whom he earned a borderline comical .305/ posted. .412/.727 slash. Carpenter hit 15 homers in just 154 plate appearances, and while the dimensions of Yankee Stadium certainly helped him to some extent, he still hit six of those round-trippers and hit .253/.333/.506 on the street.
Simply put – and in a rather amazing way – Carpenter was baseball’s best hitter by ratings (min. 100 plate appearances) in 2022. He led all of baseball in slugging percentage, isolation power (slugging minus batting average), and wRC+ (217), ranked second to Aaron Judge in on-base percentage, and had the 12th-best batting average of any player in the game. Carpenter’s catch rate (as defined by Statcast) was elite, and his average exit velocity and hard hit rate were both comfortably north of the league average. There’s no realistic way to expect him to keep up that pace, but Carpenter has clearly put himself back on the map as a viable big league slugger.
Unfortunately for the team and player, the revived Carpenter fouled a ball in his foot in early August, resulting in a fracture that wiped out the remainder of his regular season. A predictably rusty Carpenter jumped right back into the Yankees’ playoff roster but only went 1-for-12 with an alarming nine strikeouts between the ALDS and ALCS.
With the Padres, Carpenter becomes the favorite for DH work, although the Yankees played him in both corners infield and both corners in outfield in 2022. He’s also logged more than 1,900 innings at second base during his career, although his defensive metrics on his limited work there in 2021 have been unsightly, to say the least. Nevertheless, it could possibly serve as an option there in an emergency.
The agreement with Carpenter brings the Padres to more than $246 million in actual payroll for the 2023 season and increases their luxury tax book to nearly $267 million, as projected by Roster Resource. The Padres are well into the second tier of penalties and, as they enter their third straight season across the luxury line, are taxed at a rate of 62% on every dollar in second class ($253 million to $273 million). million USD). . Therefore, Carpenter will cost an additional $3.72 million in taxes for the 2023 campaign.
AJ Cassavell of MLB.com reported first The two sides had agreed on a deal with a player option for 2024. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on the terms and financial details (Twitter connections).