Aaron Judge continues to capture just about every headline involving the New York Yankees, and for good reason – he’s off to yet another ridiculous start. The reigning AL MVP winner is slashing .406/.500/.717 with eight home runs and 27 RBI. He’s leading the league in just about every relevant offensive statistical category (other than home runs, ironically enough), for the 17-11 Bronx Bombers.
Judge is off to such a hot start to the point where, again, he has completely stolen the spotlight. Ben Rice’s breakout hasn’t received nearly enough attention. Max Fried has pitched like the star he was brought in to be. Perhaps the most under-the-radar performer thus far, though, has been Paul Goldschmidt, who has proven to be a perfect fit in New York.
The 37-year-old is slashing .365/.417/.471 entering Monday’s action with one home run and 10 RBI. He hasn’t hit for much power yet, but he’s second in the majors (only behind Judge) in batting, and ranks sixth among all first basemen with a 159 WRC+. He has performed like a star at a position that was a major weakness for the Yankees last season. While that’s obviously great for New York, letting Goldschmidt walk might be the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest offseason regret.
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Cardinals letting Paul Goldschmidt walk is looking like a mistake in hindsight
I completely understand why the Cardinals let Goldschmidt walk in free agency. He’s now 37 years old, was coming off his worst season, and the Cardinals were entering what they deemed to be a “retool.”
With that being said, Goldschmidt is playing as well as he has since winning the NL MVP award in 2022, and while the Cardinals said they wanted to enter a retool, their actions didn’t exactly back that claim up. Sure, they didn’t add any free agents, but they also didn’t make any notable trades. Nolan Arenado, even if that isn’t all John Mozeliak’s fault, is still in town. Ryan Helsley is still closing games. The rotation is still made up of mostly older starters. If they weren’t going all-in on the retool, they could’ve brought Goldschmidt back.
Hindsight is 20/20. It was hard to blame the Cardinals at the time for letting him go, but it’s hard for Mozeliak and Co. not to feel a sense of regret given how well Goldschmidt is playing in New York, and also how poorly the duo of Willson Contreras and Alec Burleson has performed in his place.
