Getting to Know: David Carpenter
There aren’t many baseball players who would say throwing a football got him back on track. But that is the case for righty David Carpenter.
Last year was a trying time for Carpenter, who has accumulated 218 appearances (11–11 3.66 ERA), more than half of them from 2013–14 with the Atlanta Braves.
But after an injury-plagued 2015 with the Yankees and Nationals, Carpenter was released early last year in spring training by Atlanta. He then signed with the Rays, who let him go before the end of March, as his velocity, which used to sit in the mid-90s, was now 90–92.
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Carpenter then found a job with the Angels in Triple-A Salt Lake City. After being released there after 15 appearances, Carpenter turned to Bridgeport in the Atlantic League. Knowing that his mechanics were out of whack and his velocity wasn’t up to the norm, Carpenter was looking for a chance to find himself again.
There he worked with pitching coach and former Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch, a Tampa Bay native who at one time was a Rays bat boy. Struggling to find his arm slot, Carpenter started playing catch with a football, and that allowed him to start to get a higher arm slot where he got on top of the ball better. Before the season ended, Carpenter was topping out at 97 miles per hour. We discussed what led Carpenter to sign with the Rays this spring, as well as his story:
Carpenter is signed to a minor league deal with an invite to Rays camp, and if his velocity holds in the mid-90s with good sink, he certainly could help Tampa Bay this year out of the pen.
