Paul Goldschmidt believes he can be just what the New York Yankees have needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think I can play at a really, really high level,\u201d the veteran said in a video conference call Thursday, his first time speaking to reporters since agreeing to a one-year, $12.5-million deal with the Yankees in December.<\/p>\n
The Yankees were among the worst offensively in the game at first base last season. Still, the team endured, reaching the World Series for the first time since 2009 before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Goldschmidt, 37, should boost production at the position significantly \u2014 even if he\u2019s coming off the worst season of his career.<\/p>\n
Goldschmidt \u2014 the 2022 National League MVP and a seven-time All-Star \u2014 posted a 98 OPS+ last season for the St. Louis Cardinals. That meant that he was 2 percent worse than the league average hitter. He has a career 139 OPS+.<\/p>\n
Yet there were encouraging signs from the Texas native. Through his first 80 games, he hit just .225 with 11 home runs, 33 RBIs and a .655 OPS. But he turned it around. In his final 74 games, he hit .269 with 11 homers, 32 RBIs and a .784 OPS.<\/p>\n
A four-time Gold Glove winner, he\u2019s also still considered a strong defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t play well most of the year last year and there\u2019s no excuses for that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was on me. But hopefully looking back, there\u2019s a lot of things I learned. I know there is. There\u2019s a lot of things I learned in that first half, a lot of things I did wrong that got exposed. (I) wasn\u2019t hitting pitches that for most of my career I\u2019ve been able to connect on. Things that the opponents were doing, if they were pitching me different and stuff like that. It was a year I didn\u2019t perform my best at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldschmidt said some of his improvements were in his approach and related to being in a better position to hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re off with that,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re kind of playing uphill the whole time. You\u2019re almost playing catch-up, and you\u2019ve got to be perfect with your swing. We just can\u2019t do that enough. The pitchers are too good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldschmidt\u2019s decline stretches back further than last year. In 2022, he struck out in 21.7 percent of his at-bats. That number climbed to 23.4 percent in 2023 and to 26.5 percent in 2024. His rising chase rates could also be a cause for alarm. In 2022, it was at 23.6 percent. It moved to 25.5 percent in 2023 and to 28.9 percent in 2024.<\/p>\n
But whatever Goldschmidt provides will likely be better than what the Yankees received last season from mostly Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu and a few others. The Yankees\u2019 first basemen combined for just a .284 on-base percentage, 16 home runs and minus-1.0 fWAR.<\/p>\n
Familiarity drew Goldschmidt to the Yankees. He is friendly with Giancarlo Stanton from the time they spent playing together on Team USA during the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Also, as\u00a0The Athletic<\/em>\u00a0reported, he\u2019s spent time hitting with Aaron Judge, whom he called \u201cone of the best hitters in the world.\u201d Goldschmidt added that manager Aaron Boone used to live in his Scottsdale, Ariz., neighborhood before becoming the Yankees\u2019 skipper.<\/p>\n Goldschmidt has played 14 MLB seasons and said he\u2019s not sure how long he\u2019ll continue playing after this season. He\u2019s made $175.5 million in MLB salary, according to Baseball-Reference, not including what he\u2019s due in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to play at a high level. \u2026 The feeling was like, \u2018Man, I\u2019m better than this,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat was my feeling last year, but you\u2019ve got to go out and prove it. If you don\u2019t perform, you\u2019re not going to be playing, and I think that\u2019s the truth in this game and in life and that\u2019s something we\u2019ve all dealt with really our whole lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Goldschmidt believes he can be just what the New York Yankees have needed. \u201cI still think I can play at a really, really high level,\u201d the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n