“There was just no pressure,” Carpenter said. “You’re having a conversation in the cage, at the park, and you’re dealing with the failure of the season. If you have a conversation in the middle of the season, the wheels are already going, everything is happening quicker. We’re out in Glen Rose, Texas, an hour away from civilization, on a 380-acre ranch with nowhere to go. There’s no game around the corner. There’s no schedule. Dinner is whenever we want it to be. That kind of atmosphere opens up conversation.

“You build trust there on the ranch,” he concluded. “You can be yourself. You can be vulnerable. You can say, ‘Hey, this is where I struggle.’ It felt real.”

Cardinals position players are required to report to the Jupiter, Fla., area by Sunday and the team will hold its first official full-squad workout Monday at Roger Dean Stadium. The starting lineup has been at the facility for more than a week for informal workouts, and other hitters have started to get a sense of what the Frozen Rope Ranch summit provided in preview: Albert’s approach.