NEW YORK — On May 19, the Texas Rangers released Matt Carpenter from their Triple-A team because they didn’t see a place for him on their big league roster. The decision was described as mutual, and when Carpenter opted out of his deal with the Rangers, there was no guarantee that he’d ever step on a big league field again.
On Saturday, he set the Bronx ablaze with a pair of three-run home runs, lifting the Yankees to a 14-1 win over the Red Sox. Carpenter not only put two balls over the wall and seven RBIs in the scorebook, he got a curtain call from the fans and big ovations from the bleachers every time he took his position in right field. When he had to settle for a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning, many fans made their way to the exit, likely feeling like they were robbed of a chance to see something even more cosmic.
The Carpenter transformation has been, in the literal sense of the word, unbelievable. This is a man who not only couldn’t crack the roster of a middling Rangers’ team (though that’s more on the Rangers for failing to unlock whatever the Yankees have), it’s also somebody who hit .176 with seven home runs for the Cardinals between 2020 and 2021.
