Yankees' Paul Goldschmidt: 'I think I can still play at a really, really high level'

There are, Paul Goldschmidt said several times, “no excuses” for 2024, the worst season of his otherwise distinguished 14-year big-league career.

“I didn’t play well most of last year,” Goldschmidt said on a Zoom conference call Thursday afternoon to discuss the one-year, $12.5 million contract he agreed to late last month to be the Yankees’ first baseman in 2025.

He added not for the first or last time: “There’s no excuses for that.”

But Goldschmidt, a seven-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove winner and the 2022 National League MVP (while with the Cardinals), just as resolutely stated the kind of belief pretty much every successful major-leaguer has in himself.

“I think I can still play at a really, really high level,” he said.

The Yankees, with little in the organization when it comes to everyday first-base options, are counting on it.

They signed Goldschmidt as part of their Plan B after outfielder Juan Soto signed with the Mets. Among the others added during the roster overhaul: stud lefty starter Max Fried, star closer Devin Williams, righty swing-and-miss reliever Fernando Cruz and outfielder Cody Bellinger, who also can play first base.

The additions of Goldschmidt and Bellinger give the Yankees four MVP winners on their 2025 roster, making them the seventh team to have that many MVPs appearing in a single season, according to Elias. Bellinger won the 2019 NL MVP with the Dodgers, Giancarlo Stanton was named the 2017 NL MVP with the Marlins and Aaron Judge took home the AL award in 2022 and 2024.

“We’re going to find out,” the quiet but amiable Goldschmidt said of the lineup’s potency, at least on paper. “It’s not in my genes to make a prediction. We definitely have the talent.”

Goldschmidt’s talent has never been in question. He hit .286 with 20 homers and an .850 OPS in his first full season in the majors in 2012 with Arizona at the age of 24 and finished second in the MVP voting a year later (he again finished second in the MVP voting in 2015 and third in 2017).

By any objective measure, Goldschmidt, a .289 hitter in his career with 362 homers and an .892 OPS, has been one of the best first basemen of his generation.

He’s also been one of the most respected, whether it be in the Diamondbacks’ clubhouse or in the Cardinals’, where he spent the last six seasons.

“I love Paul Goldschmidt,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said, twice for emphasis, toward the end of the season when asked if he hoped Goldschmidt would be back in 2025.

The question surrounding Goldschmidt, of course, is how much he has left. He was signed to replace another veteran, Anthony Rizzo. Brought in at the 2021 trade deadline, Rizzo had his moments with the Yankees, but his body betrayed him, and the Yankees had no interest in bringing back the 35-year-old as a free agent after the season.

Goldschmidt has been more durable than Rizzo — the former, for instance, averaged 154 games in his age 33-36 seasons — but there is still plenty of risk in turning over the position to a player who will turn 38 on Sept. 10.

Players generally don’t get healthier as they age, and that would be a concern even if Goldschmidt were coming off a productive season. But he isn’t. He hit a career-worst .245 with a .716 OPS in 2024.

There were signs of the player he had been during most of his career, though, as Goldschmidt had a .330/.370/.551 slash line in his last 30 games beginning Aug. 27. He hit .293 with an .842 OPS in his last 43 games.

“We’re getting closer to seeing the Goldy we’ve gotten used to for a while now,” Marmol said in early September.

Goldschmidt also had a .295/.366/.473 slash line in 146 at-bats against lefthanders last season.

Of his 2024 struggles, especially in the first half, he said: “[I] got exposed. I just wasn’t hitting pitches that for most of my career I’ve been able to connect on.”

Goldschmidt, known within each of his former organizations as having an almost savant-like approach to hitting, takes the craft seriously. He visited with Judge in Tampa after both players’ MVP seasons in 2022, hoping to learn from the Yankees’ outfielder.

“The feeling was just like, ‘Man, I’m better than this,’ ” Goldschmidt said of his mental state during his struggles last season. “But you’ve got to go out and prove it. I mean, if you don’t perform, then you know you’re not going to be playing. And I think that’s just the truth in this game and in life.”