One of the purest hitters in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals is hanging up his spikes.
Matt Carpenter announced Wednesday that he's retiring from MLB after 14 seasons at the highest level.
Carpenter, the smooth left-handed hitter who didn't wear batting gloves, made three All-Star teams. He also spent time in his later career with the Yankees and Padres.
He was one of the cooler stories in baseball when he first broke through. The Cardinals only took him in the 13th round out of TCU, but a couple years later, he had hit his way to the big leagues.
He hit .294 in his first full season, then in 2013, went .318 with a league-best 55 doubles, 199 hits and 126 runs scored.
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Carpenter was a prodigious on-base guy, walking more than 80 times for five consecutive seasons in the middle of his career.
He led the league in doubles a second time, in 2015, and four years in a row hit more than 20 homers.
In 2018, Carpenter slugged a career-high 36 home runs to go with 42 doubles and 102 walks in a .257/.374/.523 season.
Carpenter closed out his career with a return to the Cardinals in 2024.
He winds up as a career .259 hitter, due mostly to late career regression. At his peak, he was one of the smoothest swingers in the game.
Now, he'll swing his way off into the sunset.
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