Current Contract:
Signed a five-year, $63.5 million contract extension with a $15 million club option for 2012 on December 4, 2006.

2007: $8,500,000
2008: $10,500,000
2009: $14,000,000
2010: $14,500,000
2011: $15,000,000
2012: $15,000,000 (or $1,000,000 buyout)

Agent: Bob LaMonte

Became a Cardinal:
Signed as a free agent on December 13, 2002.

2006 Season:
Carpenter's 3.09 ERA ranked second in the NL. He led the league with three shutouts and a 1.07 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched), and ranked among the league leaders in strikeouts (184, sixth), innings (221 2/3, sixth), complete games (five, second) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.28, third). He finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting.

Carpenter was named The Sporting News NL pitcher of the year for a second straight year, as well as the Players Choice honoree for the same title. However, those votes were taken in September, before Carpenter endured a late-season mini-slump that surely hurt his chances. Carpenter lost his final two starts, to the Astros and Padres, and watched his ERA jump from 2.79 to 3.09.

He was 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA in five postseason starts, including the clincher in the division series against the Padres and eight shutout innings in Game 3 of the World Series against the Tigers.

Career Notes:
A first round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993, Carpenter was 22 years old and a highly-regarded prospect when he broke into the majors in 1997 with the Blue Jays. After compiling a 49-50 record in his first six seasons, Carpenter had surgery in September 2002 to repair a tear in his pitching shoulder, and the Blue Jays wanted to send him back to the minors. He refused the assignment and chose to become a free agent before signing with St. Louis.

Carpenter missed the 2003 season while rehabilitating his shoulder and was forced to have another operation in July to remove scar tissue.

Finally healthy in 2004, Carpenter went 15-5 with a 3.46 ERA to earn NL comeback player of the year honors from his peers. But he missed the postseason because of a biceps injury, and St. Louis was swept in the World Series by Boston.

In 2005, Carpenter was selected to start for the National League in the All-Star Game and then went on to become the first Cardinal to win a Cy Young Award since Bob Gibson in 1970. He finished 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA in 241.2 innings. On September 16, 2006, Carpenter won his 100th career game. In three years with St. Louis he is 51-18 with a 3.10 ERA in 93 starts and the Cardinals are 65-27, a winning percentage of .707, during that span.

Photo: MLB Photos