Should The Yankees Re-Sign Paul Goldschmidt?

Goldschmidt is now 38 years old. This past season, he hit .274 with an above-average.731 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage and a 103 Weighted Runs Created+ in his 146 games that he entered. Goldschmidt also starred in the first half with a .274 batting average, .776 OPS, and a 116 wRC+ in his 334 at-bats.

Goldschmidt also clobbered left-handed pitching, as he hit .336 with seven of his 10 home runs, a .981 OPS, and a 169 wRC+ coming against southpaws in his 149 at-bats. The underlying metrics and expected stats also favored him as he was above-average in everything, including expected batting average, expected slugging percentage, hard-hit percentage, and bat speed. Goldschmidt also only had an 18.7% strikeout rate, 20.5% chase rate, 59th percentile in expected weighted on base average, and in the 70th percentile in squared up percentage.

Goldschmidt also rose to the occasion as a pinch-hitter against left-handed pitching, even hitting his first career home run off the bench, against the Seattle Mariners. When it mattered most, he also hit 4/9 in the postseason, including two hits in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, off Garrett Crochet and Aroldis Chapman.

Goldschmidt’s a nice option for a platoon bat against solely left-handed pitching. He would provide New York with their backup first baseman, who would not have to rely on Bellinger to be so.

What Are The Concerns With Goldschmidt?

A sticking point in why Goldschmidt still might not be signed is the fact that he still sees himself as a starter-caliber player, which Curry also alluded to. In the 2025 season, Goldschmidt had his lowest home run total (10) since his rookie season in 2021 (eight) in 48 games. Also, this past season, Goldschmidt had the second-lowest OPS of his career (.731) since the year prior with the St. Louis Cardinals (.716) in 154 games.

Goldschmidt is 38 years old; Father Time is undefeated, he’s in the 20th percentile in sprint speed, and in the 22nd percentile defensively in Outs Above Average at first base. Against right-handed pitching, he hit .247 with a .619 OPS, 74 wRC+, only three home runs, and a 22.1% strikeout rate in 340 at-bats.

In the second half of the season, Goldschmidt had a .245 batting average, .631 OPS, a 77 wRC+, and a 23.4% strikeout rate in his 155 at-bats.

Let’s just call a spade a spade; this is clearly a hitter that should be solely playing against left-handed pitching.

Going back to the Rice point from earlier, do you really want to take away at-bats from him instead of trying to help him fine-tune his game against lefties? In 2025, Rice hit .208 with an above-average .752 OPS, 104 wRC+, seven home runs, but a rather high 27.7% strikeout rate in his 106 at-bats. Compare this to righties, where he hit .269 with a 141 wRC+, .860 OPS, 19 home runs, 47 runs batted in, and a 16.3% strikeout rate.

Rice is also a Baseball Savant darling, as there’s nothing but red on there, showing that he was one of the unluckiest hitters in baseball this past season. Rice ran into so many loud outs, including fielders having a Fielding Run Value of 12 against him, making him, by definition, the unluckiest hitter in baseball.

Rice hits the ball incredibly hard, strikes out at a below-average clip, takes his walks, and has phenomenal batted ball data. He, on the other hand, has struggled defensively a little at the first base position, which makes sense since he’s been a catcher for so long.

The End Of My Paul Goldschmidt Rant

If Goldschmidt is content with only being used sporadically off the bench against left-handed pitching, then fine, but if not, it’s officially Rice season. Goldschmidt is still one of the league’s best hitters against southpaws and brings excellent leadership alongside him, which would be ideal for someone like Rice to have in his corner.

On the other hand, Rice is 26-years old and it seems like he’s ready to be given the keys to the full-time first baseman position entering 2026. This is a guy who showed some promise in 2024 including a three-home run game against the Red Sox after all, before Goldschmidt arrived in 2025.

It’s all up to Goldschmidt at the end of the day; if he wants to start daily, that’s unfortunately not going to be the case here. The Yankees can’t stunt the growth of Rice to play an inferior player daily just because of his notoriety, with all due respect. There’s a reason why Goldschmidt’s at-bats diminished at the end of last season. Some of it was because of his play, but Rice was forcing their hand with his play as well. So let’s see how this all transpires.