Cardinals' Carpenter: 'I'll bunt' on every shift

Matt Carpenter cares not for your fancy shifts.

The St. Louis Cardinals third baseman and leadoff hitter claimed Sunday that he plans to bunt to the empty side of the field should any opponents try and stop him with an extreme pull shift this season.

"If they're there with less than two strikes, then I'll bunt," Carpenter told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "They can do it with two strikes, but if they're going to have to be there every time until I get two strikes. I'll literally do it every single time."

Carpenter, who paced the NL with 44 doubles last year, is one of baseball's better contact hitters. If going by the book, however, teams would be wise to shift on the lefty: last season he pulled the majority of his ground balls into what would be an extreme shift.

(Courtesy: Fangraphs)

The Cardinals couldn't recall how often teams have employed a shift on Carpenter. Manager Mike Matheny told Goold he's seen it more than usual during his at-bats, while the man himself only remembered one instance from 2014.

While laying down a bunt to the open field will undoubtedly cause controversy (as it's done in the past), Carpenter is adamant that he'll simply be taking what his opponents give him.

"You want to avoid them doing it (shifting) anyway so that they take hits away (from you)," he said.

"I'll try it (bunting) and if I foul it off, I’ll do it again. ... I have no problem doing it."