JUPITER, Fla. • With plenty of time and plenty to unwind this offseason, Matt Carpenter scrolled through stats and tried to retrace his steps from the hitter he once was to the season he had just had. His .241 average and the 125 strikeouts caused a nagging feeling that his approach, as much as a bum shoulder, had changed who he was at the plate.
He searched for reasons and, on Tuesday after his return to the lineup, he searched for a phrase to explain it. He had been, he decided, “selling my soul” for power.