It’s been a week or two before we saw a new name pop up in free agent rumors with the Cubs and I well…I kind of hate it. In Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma’s latest article, left-handed hitter and former Cardinal Matt Carpenter has apparently peaked the Cubs’ interest.

Cubs Interested in Matt Carpenter

Carpenter, 37, played for the Yankees in 2022, after 11 years in St. Louis.

Via The Athletic.

Besides first basemen Josh Bell and Trey Mancini, the Cubs also have a level of interest in Matt Carpenter as a left-handed hitter who remade his swing to post a 1.138 OPS in 47 games this year with the Yankees. Carpenter, 37, would bring credibility after notching three All-Star selections with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing in 14 postseason series throughout his career and showing the willingness to reinvent himself with the help of people like Joey Votto.

The Cardinals declined Carpenter’s $18.5 million option for the 2022 season, buying him out for $2 million and making the left-handed hitter a free agent for the first time in his career. Carpenter’s stock was at an all-time low, as he eventually signed with the Texas Rangers in the middle of March, joining the club on a minor league deal. The Rangers left him off their Opening Day roster and Carpenter accepted an assignment to Triple-A, and despite posting solid numbers down there Carpenter was released on May 19.

That was the best thing that could have happened to Carpenter, who was then signed by the Yankees a week later. Carpenter did get injured later in the season, but he was incredible with New York, hitting 15 home runs in 47 games. The 15 home runs matched his 2019 total, which took him nearly 4x the at-bats to hit.

Matt Carpenter Swing Change

Cubs fans have heard way too much about players trying to fix their swing or having a new plate approach *cough* Almora *cough* Heyward, but you do have to give credit to Carpenter. It looked like he was toast in his final couple seasons with the Cardinals and then he became one of the best power hitters during a year when home run numbers went down across the board in 2022.

Carpenter went on a journey to fix his swing in the offseason, working with Joey Votto and ex-Cardinals teammate Matt Holliday among others. He also received help from his bat company supplier and you can’t argue with the results. You can read all about it in The Athletic here.

Carpenter was striking out nearly 30% of the time from 2019-21, while his slugging dipped into the .300s. An entire offseason devoted to fixing a mechanical issued yielded Carpenter’s best numbers of his career. He only struck out 22% of the time with the Yankees and his slugging percentage skyrocketed to .727. The changes were real.

I just painted a rosy picture on why Carpenter could be a good fit with the Cubs, who need to add multiple hitters this offseason and desperately need anyone with power at the plate. I’ll admit that my initial reaction to seeing Carpenter’s name linked to the Cubs is pure pettiness. Absolute meatball take here. It’s as simple as he was with the Cardinals and I hated watching him kill the Cubs. And his dumb ass salsa too.

But I’ll get over it if the Cubs does sign him and he continues to go on a power surge. I mean, I didn’t really like John Lackey either, but the Cubs won a World Series with him. So, sign me up for another one of those.