After 14 seasons in the major leagues, Matt Carpenter is calling it a career.
He officially announced his retirement Wednesday on Sports Spectrum’s “Get in the Game” podcast with former MLB pitcher Scott Linebrink. Carpenter’s decision came after months of prayer and reflection, as well as time with his wife, Mackenzie, and two children.
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Ultimately, it was a relatively easy decision, he said.
“God really just put it on my heart that it was time to come home and be a dad,” he said. “I’ve got two little kids. I’ve got a third-grade daughter, Kinley. I got a first-grade son, Cannon. And they are just in such fun ages. I just didn’t want to miss out on any more things that you miss as a professional athlete.”
Carpenter was drafted in the 13th round of the 2009 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, where he spent the first 11 seasons of his career. He was named to the National League All-Star team three times during that stretch, and in 2013 he won a Silver Slugger Award while also helping lead the Cardinals to the World Series.
He joined the New York Yankees for the 2022 season, where he saw a bit of a resurgence, becoming the first player in franchise history to hit six home runs in his first 10 games with the team. He finished with 15 home runs — his highest total since hitting 15 in 2019 — to go along with a .305 batting average in only 47 games.
He played 76 games for the San Diego Padres in 2023, then spent the 2024 season — his last — with the Cardinals, playing 59 games. Carpenter’s career concludes with a .259 batting average, 179 home runs and 659 RBIs.
Though he came up as a corner infielder, he also proved capable in the outfield before settling in at second base for a number of years in St. Louis. His versatility on the field and in the lineup allowed him to hit leadoff as well as in the middle of the order. Punctuated by a stretch of six straight games with a home run, he finished the 2018 season with a career-high 36 long balls.
Still, one of the highlights of his career was making his major league debut on June 4, 2011, against the rival Chicago Cubs. His family was in attendance, including his dad, Rick, who served as his coach during his youth days in Texas.
“It was just an electric environment,” he said. “Chris Carpenter was the starter that day. I’m playing third base and it’s just a very surreal moment. Certainly a highlight of my time getting to play baseball.”
Carpenter famously hit with no batting gloves and donned a rugged beard for much of his career. Both of these attributes seemed to embody his gritty nature and his journey to professional baseball.
He often tells the story about the wakeup call he had while playing at Texas Christian University. Reaching a weight of nearly 240 pounds, Carpenter was teetering on not reaching his full potential. He was admittedly not taking his diet, workouts or sleep schedule as seriously as he should have. Then, a throw across the diamond caused an elbow injury that led to him having Tommy John surgery and a tough-love conversation with his head coach, Jim Schlossnagle, now the head coach at Texas.
The message was simple: If he didn’t change his diet and take his physical fitness seriously, his playing career might be over. It was “a defining moment,” Carpenter said.
“I felt like it was God’s way of opening up my eyes and saying, ‘Hey, if this is what you want to do, then we’re going to have to do it. We’re going to have to change some things. And we’re going to have to get a little bit more discipline and start taking this a little bit more serious if this is what you want to do,'” he said. “And man, that injury kind of changed my whole perspective of what it takes to be a great baseball player.”
His faith in God guided him throughout his entire major league career, all the way up to his decision to hang up the cleats. After spending last season with the Cardinals, he took some phone calls as a free agent to see what options were out there and if any of them made sense. At age 40, those calls start to be fewer and farther between.
All the while, Carpenter was enjoying the rhythms at home and realized he wanted to be home with his wife and kids all the time.
“For all of my children’s lives at this point, I haven’t been that constant figure at the house due to the demands of a Major League Baseball season,” he said. “I mean, the one benefit of playing professional sports is you do have an offseason where you come home and you are there every single night and you’re spending hours a day that someone that’s working a normal job maybe doesn’t get to spend. You can kind of double down on that time. But then once the season starts, you’re gone a lot and just that tugging on my heartstrings in that specific area when it comes to my wife and children was a big one.”
What helped was that his identity has never come from his role as a professional baseball player, he said. Baseball was what he did, not who he was.
He took time to thank all of his teammates — specifically guys like Adam Wainwright and Matt Holliday — who helped him grow as an athlete and in his faith. Carpenter also thanked his coaches, his fans and his family for the success he experienced in his career.
He said he’s excited for the next chapter of his life with his family.
“As we went through the offseason, it just became clearer and clearer to me that God wanted me here at home,” Carpenter said. “Not only was that His desire, but it was my desire and it made the decision really easy.”
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