The resurgence of Matt Carpenter has been one of the most incredible stories in baseball this year, but now his status for the remainder of the season is in question.
The New York Yankees announced that Carpenter suffered a left foot fracture in Monday night’s game against the Seattle Mariners.
Matt Carpenter left tonight's game with a left foot fracture.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 9, 2022
The injury occurred when Carpenter fouled a ball off his back foot in the top of the first inning.
Matt Carpenter suffered a foot fracture on this first inning foul ball pic.twitter.com/IiDZLTwRit
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 9, 2022
This is terrible for Carpenter, the Yankees, and the sport of baseball in general.
Carpenter was a three-time All-Star (most recently in 2016) with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he fell off hard in 2019-2021: a .726 OPS in 2019, a .640 OPS in 2020, and a .581 OPS in 2021.
The 36-year-old signed with the Yankees on May 26, and he’s put together absolutely ridiculous production in the weeks since.
.@MattCarp13 gets a big ovation from @Cardinals fans as he returns to St. Louis. 👏 pic.twitter.com/fXpMW9WJsQ
— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2022
Carpenter has a .305/.412/.727 slash line with 15 home runs and a 216 wRC+ in 154 plate appearances. He’s been valued at 2.3 wins above replacement (WAR) per FanGraphs over 47 games played.
Of hitters with at least 150 plate appearances, Carpenter leads the majors in slugging percentage (teammate Aaron Judge is second at .677), OPS (1.138; Judge is second at 1.068), wOBA (.471; Judge is second at .443), and wRC+ (Judge is second at 196). So, while that’s a limited sample, Carpenter has stunningly been the best hitter in baseball since the Yankees signed him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8EvPsBIrs
The Yankees (an AL-best 71-39) are still loaded, but with the remarkable production Carpenter has been giving them, this is a big loss.
Hopefully, this won’t be a season-ending injury, and Carpenter and his mustache can return to cranking dingers at an unbelievable rate.