It might happen at the supermarket 30 minutes away from his ranch or at a breakfast joint nearby when a neighbor or friend of a friend starts quizzing Matt Carpenter about his profession and inevitably asks what he has been unable to answer.

“Baseball, huh? What position do you play?” they’ll say.

“It’s actually a great question,” he’ll reply. “I don’t know.”

Almost immediately after the Cardinals traded for six-time All-Star and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, Carpenter unpacked his Rawlings infielder’s glove, enlisted a ranch hand and started going daily to a nearby high school field to take grounders at third base. For the first time in his career, the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter and last season’s leading hitter has a home before the holidays.

The annual questions of what he’ll play when or where he’ll hit now already have their resolutions. The hot corner is his. The leadoff spot awaits him. The certainty is a gift.

“First time it solidifies a spot for me,” Carpenter said this past week from his home in Texas. “It’s uncharted territory. I’ve become accustomed to going into the season being prepared for all of it, for anything. It’s baseball, so things can happen, things can change. I look at this as the chance to focus.”