Carpenter using Judge's swing guru to get big results

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The crowd at Comerica Park was still buzzing about Kerry Carpenter’s home run in his first game back from the injured list Tuesday night, having sent George Kirby’s 97 mph fastball out to left field, when he struck again an inning later. Kirby didn’t want to give him another fastball in the zone. But when Kirby left a splitter over the plate, Carpenter was ready for it, launching it deep to right.

He was ready for the fastball, but quick enough to adjust for the offspeed pitch when he recognized it.

“It's launch quickness,” Carpenter explained the next day, “So I feel like when I decide to swing, that's when I swing. It's not decide to swing, load a little more and then swing. …

“That's what's changed my career, the launch quickness. I don't have to sit [on] pitches, because I can be on time for a fastball and be able to recognize the offspeed and be able to hit that still.”

Carpenter had a text message waiting for him after his two-homer performance. It was from his hitting instructor, Richard Schenck.

“I texted him some video when I was coming back, just to make sure whatever I was doing looked good to him,” Carpenter said. “I trust his eye more than my own and anybody else's.”

• Everything you need to know about Players' Weekend

One night later, Carpenter homered again. So did Schenck’s more famous pupil, Aaron Judge, becoming the fastest player to 300 career home runs by games played in Major League history.

The history-making Yankees slugger and the emerging Tiger will be on the same field this weekend, in opposite dugouts – first at Comerica Park, then in Williamsport, Pa., on Sunday night for the Little League Classic. One is a 6-foot-7 behemoth and a first-round pick on a Hall of Fame trajectory, the other is a 2019 Draft pick chosen in the 19th round who defied the odds to forge a big league career with a meteoric rise through the Tigers' system.

Their common trait is their swing.

“You might look at Aaron's swing and Kerry's swing and might not recognize it because they're not the same guy,” Schenck said. “But from the point they get to their load until they launch the bat, they're doing the exact same thing.”

While Schenck is best known for his work with Judge, that wasn’t what drew Carpenter to him for the work that changed his career. It was his teammate in Double-A Erie, former Tigers outfielder Jacob Robson.

Carpenter had a solid first full pro season at Double-A Erie in 2021, hitting .262 with 15 homers with 74 RBIs in 112 games while playing alongside top prospects Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson. That same year, Robson rose from Erie to Triple-A Toledo and onto Detroit's lineup card on Aug. 12, having worked with Schenck in 2020 to unlock more hitting.

“‘You had a pretty good year, but your swing isn’t that great. Like, you could have a better swing and you’d be a lot better,’” Carpenter recalled Robson saying a couple years ago. “And at first, I was like, ‘I don’t know, man, I think I’m just going to hang with the swing that I have.’”

Carpenter wasn’t sure, but eventually went to see Schenck in St. Louis during the offseason. After three days of lessons, he was sold.

“What most people don't understand is there’s technique that will make your bat get to the ball quicker,” Schenck said. “You have to be able to get your bat up to speed the instant you decide to swing. What I teach them to do is get all their loading done and ready before they decide to swing.

“I never saw [Carpenter] swing a bat before, but he was really motivated when he got here. He worked really hard. By the end of the session, he was really good.”

Carpenter committed to the change and stuck with it through a rough Spring Training that landed him back at Double-A and then through a rough first month in Erie. When it finally clicked, Carpenter had a Judgean tear: 13 homers in May, then another tear when he reached Triple-A Toledo. By the time the Tigers called him up on Aug 10, 2022, he led the Minor Leagues with 30 home runs in 98 games.

All the while, he stayed in touch with Schenck, usually from afar except for offseason visits.

“Everybody's a little different,” Schenck said. “When they finally start to own the swing, they understand it, they know what to do, they don't really need me that much. With Kerry, there's a lot more text and video exchange. With Aaron, there's a lot more [in-person] work.

“I have over 200 hours with Aaron Judge. I don't know if I have 40 hours with Kerry in the cage.”

That said, there was a moment last season while the Yankees were in Detroit that they were working together.

“It's fun to watch them work together because they both know what's going on exactly with his swing,” Carpenter said. “I love his tempo. I love how intentional he is with what he does. It is something to learn from, watching somebody like that. He's not having the seasons that he's having because he's physically gifted. It's because of how good his swing is. The physical gifts are what lets him hit 62 in a season, but he still hits .320 and gets walked and doesn't chase and hits the balls he does get in the zone. So it's pretty special to watch.”

So with Judge and Carpenter facing off, who will Schenck be rooting for?

The offense, of course.

“I generally don't root for the team, I root for the player,” he said. “I want them to take good at-bats.”