Matt Carpenter and the Recent History of Unlikely Yankee Heroes
This spring if you were asked to name a guy that would nearly single-handedly carry the Yankee offense for an extended stretch this season, you might have listed 100 names before you came up with Matt Carpenter. But here we are nearing the end of July and a man whose career was dead in the water two months ago has become indispensable for the Bombers.
After getting picked up off the scrap heap in late May, Carpenter ingratiated himself to the Bronx faithful with an impressive barrage of home runs, hitting six in his first 10 games as a Yankee. He found a higher gear in July. Bouncing around in Aaron Boone's lineup - whether it be at the corner outfield spots, first base or designated hitter - he posted a .442/.529/.727 slash line with seven home runs and 21 RBI's for the month leading up to the All-Star break. He ended that with a 6-for-15 crescendo in the week before the break, which included three home runs and 12 RBIs. For his efforts, Carpenter took home the AL Player of the Week award, and the hearts of all Yankee fans.
This is just the latest example of a Yankee player becoming an unstoppable force despite being entirely off the radar just prior to their arrival in New York. It's happened many times in the franchise's history, most notably during championship seasons. Let's take a stroll down memory lane and re-live the rapid rise of some of the Yankees more recent rags to riches stories.
Darryl Strawberry - 1996
Before his stint with the Yankees, Darryl Strawberry had already enjoyed the riches that New York has to offer. In fact, he enjoyed them way too much. Drugs and alcohol were a staple of the high profile Mets of the mid-1980's and Strawberry stood front and center of it all along with Dwight Gooden.
When Strawberry signed a lucrative free agent deal with the Dodgers in 1990, his career began to fizzle. Los Angeles released him after failing to show up to a game in 1994 and he then latched on in San Francisco for an unsuccessful stint with the Giants. He hit rock bottom in 1995 when he was suspended for cocaine use before the star of the season. When the suspension was over, George Steinbrenner took a chance on the former superstar. While he didn't embarrass himself in pinstripes, he didn't play well enough to earn a contract the following year.
In 1996 Strawberry signed with an independent minor league team in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Yankees were paying attention to him devouring minor league competition and brought him aboard again for their second half push for the playoffs. It took him about a month to get re-acclimated to major league pitching, but in an early August game against the White Sox he showed the Yankee Stadium crowd that he was still capable of doing the great things he did crosstown in Shea Stadium a decade earlier. He crushed three home runs in a dominant Yankee victory and followed it up with a two-homer effort just two days later.
Over the next month the Yankees saw their lead in the AL East shrink, but Strawberry was a huge reason that they remained in first place. For the month of August he slashed a robust .315/.400/.618 with totals of seven home runs and 19 RBIs. Just two months prior he was considered a disgraced relic from the '86 Mets. Suddenly he was the big bat the Yankees needed to survive the pennant race.
Strawberry cooled off considerably in September but when the team needed a lefty bat in the American League Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles he was there to save the day again. In games three, four and five - all Yankee victories - he collected five hits in 11 at bats, including three home runs. He was desperate to get his life and career back on track and the Yankees were desperate to get back to the World Series after a lengthy absence. In a match made in heaven, they both succeeded.
Strawberry would remain in pinstripes for another three seasons, but they were filled with ups and downs. He would earn another two World Series rings and surpassed 20 home runs in 1998 for the first time in seven years. However, he also struggled with injuries - including a bout with colon cancer in 1999 - more drug use, and a variety of legal troubles even after his playing career ended. To his credit, it appears that all of his past troubles are behind him.
Shane Spencer - 1998
In 1998 Shane Spencer was entering the ninth year of his minor league career. Drafted by the Yankees out of high school in the 28th round of the 1990 draft, he was never considered a top prospect in the organization. He was slow to develop but by the time he reached double-A he started to show a legitimate power stroke, posting back to back 30 home run seasons in 1996 and 1997.
The Yankees rewarded Spencer for his patience and newfound power with a few cups of coffee in the big leagues through the first half of 1998. In his first nine games as a Yankee he was underwhelming, collecting just three hits in 19 plate appearances. That all changed when the Yankees took on the Royals in the back half of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on August 7th.
In his fifth career start Spencer went five-for-five with two doubles and two home runs as the Yankees routed the Royals 14-2. By that point in the season they were running away with the division title and home field advantage in the playoffs. With nothing left to play for, Spencer was given a lot of playing time as the Yankees played out the balance of their schedule and he made the most of it. Determined to never return to the minors again, he became a household name in New York that September.
From that Royals game on, Spencer tattooed the ball like he was Babe Ruth in 1927. In the 18 games he played in he slashed .440/.482/1.140 with 10 home runs and 25 RBIs. The Yankees went 15-3 during that stretch. For a brief period, a bleach blonde California boy was the king of New York during one of their most dominant seasons ever.
Spencer's dominance continued in the first round of the postseason as he hit .500 with two home runs in a series victory over the Rangers. But that's where the magic ran out. He remained with the Yankees for a handful of years as a spare outfielder before splitting a season between Cleveland and Texas, then wrapping his career up back in New York with the Mets in 2004. He was never more than an average hitter during those years.
When it comes to Shane Spencer, though, the only thing that matters to Yankee fans is the late summer of 1998. Ask anyone who was around then and they'll fondly recall the days when he was the surest thing in one of the greatest Yankee lineups of all time.
Ricky Ledée - 1999
Like Shane Spencer, Ricky Ledée was drafted by the Yankees in 1990 and didn't make his major league debut until 1998. Unlike Spencer, Ledée was considered a top prospect for the Yankees prior to his arrival in the Bronx. He was only 16 when he signed with the Yankees out of Puerto Rico and spent a full five years in the lower levels of the Yankee system, showing steady improvement throughout. By '98 he was a top 50 prospect in the country according to Baseball America but struggled in 42 games in the majors.
Early on in the playoffs that year, Darryl Strawberry was diagnosed with colon cancer which gave Ledée another opportunity. In the World Series he seized it by collecting six hits - including three doubles - in 10 at bats and driving in four runs as the Yankees swept the Padres. After succeeding on baseball's biggest stage, he was expected to be a key contributor in 1999.
Yet Ledée failed to carry that momentum into the following year. By the end of May he was hitting just .200 and striking out at an alarming rate. He was sent back to triple-A Columbus, in danger of being remembered as nothing more than an interesting footnote in the 1998 World Series. While he worked to improve in Columbus, the Yankees' left field situation remained unsettled. When July rolled around, he was called up again for what was likely his last chance at sticking on the major league roster. This time, he was ready.
On July 8th Ledée went two-for-three with a run scored in a victory over the Tigers in Detroit. From that point through the end of August he played like a superstar. Over that stretch he slashed .373/.439/.691 with seven home runs, 10 doubles, two triples and 25 RBIs. This coincided with the Yankees increasing their lead in the AL East by three and half games in their bid for back-to-back World Series titles. That was enough for Ledée to win over Yankee fans, but what really stole their hearts was his performance on a Sunday afternoon in July when they hosted the Montreal Expos.
In a game that is remembered mostly for what David Cone did, Ledée won the award for best supporting actor. In the second inning he came up with Chili Davis on base and sent a missile to the upper deck in right field to put the Yankees on the board first. Fast forward to the top of the ninth inning and something even bigger than that monster home run was on the verge of happening. Cone was two outs away from dealing a perfect game when Ryan McGuire popped up to short left field where only Ledée had a chance to make a play and keep the perfecto intact. Charging in, he momentarily lost the ball in the sun before snagging it at the last second to record the out and lower the collective blood pressure in Yankee Stadium.
Unfortunately, that was the peak of Ricky Ledée as a major leaguer. His struggles with the Yankees continued in the 2000 season and he was dealt mid-season for David Justice in a trade that pushed them to the World Series for the third straight year. From there, Ledée bounced around to six different teams over seven years but settled in as a solid bench player and fine pinch hitter in the National League. As a Yankee, he'll always be remembered as the guy who partied like it was 1999 [insert vomit emoji].
Glenallen Hill - 2000
In the late 1990's and early 2000's it seemed like the Yankees were always looking for a righthanded power bat. Near the trade deadline in 2000 they sent two minor leaguers to the Cubs and finally struck gold in the form of 35-year old righty slugger Glenallen Hill. The journeyman and 12-year veteran had never come particularly close to playing in the World Series, so he played like a man possessed to do that when he joined the defending champions.
Hill was very good at hitting home runs and doing very little else on the baseball diamond. He was a poor outfielder. He didn't hit for a high average. At this point in his career he couldn't run at all. He didn't draw a lot of walks. But when he got his pitch he could put it in the seats with ease. In fact, as the baseball environment became more conducive to home runs in the late 90's, Hill's ability to hit them increased accordingly. As a Yankee, that home run ability became an absurdity.
In his first game as a Yankee, Hill started at DH and hit a home run in a victory over the Orioles in Baltimore. That's more or less how it went for the next month or so. He didn't have many multi-home run games. He didn't have an extended streak of games with a home run. He simply became a home run machine. From the end of July through the end of August he never went more then two games without going yard. With an awkward swing that had zero follow-through, the ball seemed to jump off his bat like it was rubberized, even when he broke his bat. His arrival couldn't have come at a better time.
In their quest for a three-peat the Yankees struggled mightily at the end of the 2000 season, but Hill kept the offense afloat. In the 40 games he played for the Yankees he crushed 16 long balls - better than a home run every nine at bats - and drove in 29 runs. Even with his explosive bat the Yankees couldn't prevent a 3-13 skid to close the season but they took home the division title anyway and were poised to defend their World Series crown. Hill's home run juice ran dry in October. In 18 playoff plate appearances he had just one hit to show for it. Despite his October struggles, in the end he earned the only World Series ring of his career.
The Yankees traded Hill to the Angels prior to the 2001 season but his career ended after just 16 games with them. Years later he would be named in the Mitchell Report, which might at least partly explain why he looked like He-Man and was so successful with the Yankees. In the moment, though, it was great fun to watch one of the best deadline acquisitions in Yankee history turn live games into batting practice.
Honorable Mention: Eric Hinske - 2009
While he didn't shine as bright as the group listed above, Eric Hinske did provide some fireworks for the Yankees during their most recent championship season. The 2002 AL Rookie of the Year experienced a sophomore slump that lasted for the rest of his 12-year career. Even if he never played to that level again, he stuck with this baseball thing and found ways to be useful. He wore out his welcome in Toronto just two years after his rookie campaign, then settled in as a serviceable bench player for the Rays and Red Sox. In 2009 he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates who were destined to wallow at the bottom of the NL Central all season.
In early July of that year it was clear that the Yankees could use an upgrade on their bench for the stretch run and sent some spare parts to Pittsburgh for Hinske. He made an immediate impact, hitting five home runs in his first seven games as a Yankee. It was exactly the type of boost the Bombers were looking for and gave the Bleacher Bums in right field another lefty to go nuts over.
Hinske's bat cooled off for the remainder of the year, but his on-base ability and versatility as a corner outfielder or corner infielder kept him in the lineup regularly. Come playoff time the Yankees mostly kept him off the active roster. Still, for his efforts in the regular season he earned his second and final World Series ring.
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It remains to be seen if the Matt Carpenter story will end in World Series glory like those above. With the Yankees in the pole position of the American League right now, the chances are better than they've been in years. However, what you can take to the bank is that the fans will adore Carpenter for the rest of the year while he'll play it as cool as gazpacho.
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