The veteran first baseman, renown for his work in bashing Giants’ pitching to bits, makes sense from a Posey perspective.
Sometimes reliable Bob Nightengale posted this afternoon that the San Francisco Giants have shown interest in veteran first baseman, Tim Lincecum nemesis, and general Giantslayer (.302/.405/.554 with 32 HR in 166 games) Paul Goldschmidt.
It makes a whole lot of sense. The recently-turned 37-year old just finished a 5-year, $130 million extension he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 2020 season — after being traded from the Diamondbacks after 2018 — and one would be foolish to argue that the Cardinals didn’t get a really good deal for a great player.
It’s a little surprising to realize that his St. Louis career spanned 7 seasons (2018-2024), because his Arizona career (2011-2017) was burned into my brain thanks to all the damage he did against my favorite team. Anyway, from ages 30-36, he slashed .280/.365/.491 (.856 OPS) in 4,274 plate appearances, hit 186 home runs and drove in 560. He generated 28.4 bWAR over this same span. He’s also 22-for-24 in stolen base attempts the past two seasons.
His best days are clearly behind him, but his average bat speed and hard hit rates from 2024 indicate that the bat still has some life. He played in 154 games for the second straight season and basically has averaged 150+ games since 2015. His ~63 wins above replacement (Baseball Reference’s version) makes him a no-doubt Hall of Famer, but if you’re one who is skeptical of modern guys being Hall of Famers, consider that his 362 home runs is just 7 behind Todd Helton (Hall of Famer), 1 more than Johnny Mize (Hall of Famer), and 17 behind Orlando Cepeda (Hall of Famer).
So, it’s pretty clear why Buster Posey would want to bring in a player like Paul Goldschmidt. He’s definitely of the “plays the game the right way” ilk and is as consistent as you can get, despite the age. And that might be a market inefficiency the team is willing to explore, especially with all the other concerns the Giants must factor in when making any transactions this offseason — not just the financial impact of multimillion dollar deals, but potentially losing draft picks or bonus money, trading away prospects or depth, et cetera. Goldschmidt has no qualifying offer attached and so he’d only cost money.
A reasonable comp might be J.D. Martinez’s deal last season (1 year, $12 million), but more likely something closer to $14-$15 million, just given the list of suitors. For Goldschmidt’s part, I think he should want to come back to the NL West. The Giants weren’t the only team he treated like a rage room:
vs. Dbacks: 135 PA (30 G) | .300/.366/.592, 10 HR, 5 2B, 27 RBI
vs. Rockies: 705 PA (156 G) | .322/.416/.567, 29 HR, 49 2B, 131 RBI
vs. Padres: 648 PA (155 G) | .306/.424/.526, 25 HR, 37 2B, 97 RBI
vs. Dodgers: 697 PA (163 G) | .283/.362/.510, 35 HR, 34 2B, 109 RBI
at Oracle Park: 368 PA (84 G) | .334/.424/.591, 15 HR, 28 2B, 64 RBI
As a bridge to Bryce Eldridge or simply a way to add another experienced bat with a decent chance of performing at the very least adequately in 2025, Paul Goldschmidt is worthy of consideration and maybe even a wise acquisition, especially if it’s a choice between, say, Jerar Encarnacion and Goldschmidt for first base. I’m not sure if I’m down with the best bats in the lineup all being right-handed, but at the end of the day, an upgrade is an upgrade. Is a barely league average bat just a few months ago (.245/.302/.414 in 2024) really that much of an upgrade, though? One lucky team and fanbase will just have to wait and see.