Carpenter making progress — slowly

Matt Carpenter began baseball activities on Tuesday. “Well, I don’t know if you could call it that,” he said, smiling.

The Cardinals’ first baseman, sidelined by back tightness, stood in the batter’s box as a hitter, without swinging as reliever Luke Gregerson threw a bullpen session outside the Cardinals’ clubhouse. But not to worry, said Carpenter. He will be doing real activities shortly.

“We’re taking it by step by step,” said Carpenter, who felt discomfort when working out here before the start of camp some nine days ago. “It’s pretty similar to what we’ve had in the past. Just trying to be pro-active.”

Carpenter, 32, said he was “close” to taking ground balls “and getting bent over and all that stuff. But there’s still all kinds of progression that they want me to go through.”

To assuage the doubts of Cardinals fans, Carpenter said, “I’m not concerned at all. Last year, when I took the time off not to go to the World Baseball Classic. . . I could have played in it but it wasn’t smart.

“Very similar to how I feel right now. I could go out and grind through spring training games. But is that smart? Last year, I was able to take some time off and I had no issues through the season with it.”

Carpenter, who was bothered much of the 2017 season by a sore right shoulder, hit .241 in 145 games with 23 homers and 69 RBIs.

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