The New York Yankees made several major moves this offseason in trying to improve the roster after the loss of Juan Soto.
One of the most significant additions of the winter was the upgrade the Yankees made at first base after a disastrous year from Anthony Rizzo along with the numerous other fill-ins at the position when Rizzo could not stay on the field.
New York ranked dead last in baseball when it came to OPS from their first basemen, with a borderline laughable mark of just .619.
Even slightly below average production there in 2025 would be a massive upgrade over 2024.
The Yankees could get much better than that, however, after they signed St. Louis Cardinals legend Paul Goldschmidt just two years removed from the best season of his career.
Goldschmidt’s numbers are a far cry from what he put up two years ago, now coming off the worst campaign of his 14-year MLB career, but there’s reason to believe the seven-time All-Star could be due for a major bounce back with Brian Murphy of MLB.com naming Goldschmidt to his list of players who could rebound.
“… there were signs last year that Goldschmidt can still be an impact player. His barrel rate (10.7%) and hard-hit rate (49.6%) remained stellar, and those rates were at 16.3% and 55.8%, respectively, over his final 30 games of the year.,” Murphy wrote. “There seems to be plenty of life in his bat as he enters his age-37 season.”
Power is generally the last thing to go for a player, and even though his home run numbers were down, there’s still plenty of power left in the legend’s bat.
Murphy also pointed out that the switch from Busch Stadium to Yankee Stadium should assist in Goldschmidt being able to get his power back and hit more long balls.
Incredibly, while he still had 22 home runs in 2024, it was Goldschmidt’s lowest total in a full season in a decade since he hit 19 in 2014 with the Arizona Diamondbacks in a year where he played just 109 games.
Nobody is going to expect Goldschmidt to turn back the clock to 2022, but if he can be the kind of player he was in 2023 when he slashed .268/.363/.447 with 25 home runs and 80 RBI, it’s safe to say New York would be absolutely thrilled.
With his bat still intact, it’s well within the realm of possibility for the likely future Hall of Famer can produce for the Yankees at a high level in 2025.
