WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Paul Goldschmidt is hitting like a man who wants to play every day. The problem is that the calendar, and a teammate’s recovery, are about to make that impossible.
The Yankees first baseman has been one of the best stories of the Yankees season. At 38 years old, he has carried a stretch of the lineup that few expected him to. Yet Goldschmidt is fully aware of what is coming. When Giancarlo Stanton returns from the injured list, the playing time that fueled this surge will start to disappear.
Goldschmidt is not fighting the Yankees on it. He knew the arrangement when he signed. But the honesty with which he has talked about his shrinking window says a lot about where the future Hall of Famer is in his career.
The truth Goldschmidt already accepted
Stanton has been out since late April with a low-grade calf injury. He finally began running this week, a clear sign that his return is approaching. The Yankees have openly said they cannot wait to get his right-handed bat back into a lineup that leans heavily to the left side.
That is good news for the Yankees. It is complicated news for the Yankees veteran. Stanton’s absence is exactly what opened the door for his recent run of at-bats. Once Stanton is back as the designated hitter, Ben Rice slides to first base, and Goldschmidt’s path to regular starts narrows again.
Goldschmidt did not dodge that reality when asked about it. He laid out the Yankees situation plainly, acknowledging that his role was never guaranteed to be a large one.
“There was no promise you’re going to do this exactly or not do this, but obviously I knew us having Benny and G and the great players here, that there could be times when playing time was not as regular,” Goldschmidt said to NJ.com. “But I love the guys here. I have so much fun playing with them, and most importantly, I just wanted to be part of this team and try to help us get in the playoffs and then win the World Series.”
That was the trade-off the Yankees veteran chose. Goldschmidt re-signed with the Yankees for $4 million late in the offseason. He likely could have landed more money and more guaranteed at-bats with a rebuilding club hungry for his leadership. He picked the Yankees and the chance to chase a title instead.
Why Goldschmidt took the pay cut
The Yankees decision was not about the paycheck or the playing time. It was about winning, and about enjoying the back nine of a remarkable career on a team built to contend.
Goldschmidt’s resume speaks for itself. He earned seven All-Star selections across his years with the Diamondbacks from 2011 to 2018 and the Cardinals from 2019 to 2024. He won the National League MVP. He has four Gold Gloves. His 378 career home runs tie him with Manny Machado for 78th on the all-time list.
None of that guaranteed him a starting job with the Yankees. He accepted that. What changed his perspective, he said, was watching his peers reach the end of their playing days while he kept going.
“I try to savor every opportunity,” Goldschmidt said. “I definitely think my last couple years in St. Louis, you realize the career is definitely on the back end rather than the front end, so you try to enjoy those little moments a little bit more.”
He traced the shift in his thinking to a specific moment in his career, when the players he came up with began to walk away from the game.
“There’s definitely a time, probably around 2021 honestly, where a lot of the guys I was playing started either retiring or being done,” Goldschmidt said. “My contract with St. Louis had a couple more years, but I felt like this could end any day.”
The numbers that earned Goldschmidt his shot
The opportunity Stanton’s injury created for the Yankees did not go to waste. Goldschmidt proved he still belongs in the Yankees lineup, and then some.
Since Stanton went down, Goldschmidt has appeared in 23 of 31 Yankees games. Over that stretch he is hitting .305 with five home runs, 14 RBI and a .952 OPS. Compare that to the season’s opening weeks, when he started just seven of the Yankees’ first 27 games and hit .125 with one homer and three RBI across 29 plate appearances.
On Friday night, he supplied the early blow in an 8-2 win over the Athletics that pushed the Yankees to five straight victories. Facing Luis Severino, Goldschmidt turned on an inside fastball above the knees and drove it 380 feet over the left-center field wall. The three-run homer made it 4-0 just six batters into the game.
Manager Aaron Boone has watched the veteran provide exactly the kind of balance the Yankees needed. He praised Goldschmidt for filling a void without missing a beat.
“He’s been huge,” Boone said. “He’s given us a little bit of balance. He’s held his own with righties. He continues to kind of do what he does against lefties. When G goes down, you’re looking for someone to step up and Goldie certainly has done that.”
How teammates view Goldschmidt’s role for the Yankees
The respect inside the Yankees clubhouse runs deep. Aaron Judge, who anchors the Yankees lineup, did not hesitate to put Goldschmidt’s career in its proper context.
“The guy’s a Hall of Famer,” Judge said. “He’s a big part of this offense. You can never replace big G obviously, but having Ben Rice DHing and Goldie still at first, it’s working out so far.”
Rice, the breakout star whose own rise pushed Goldschmidt down the depth chart last year, sees a professional model every time the veteran steps to the plate. He spoke about what makes Goldschmidt so reliable.
“He’s guaranteed to always have just such a professional at-bat,” Rice said. “He goes up there with a plan. He hits the ball hard.”
Goldschmidt remains a Yankees weapon against left-handed pitching, an area where he ranked among the best in baseball last season. This year he is hitting .340 with four homers in 47 at-bats against lefties. His .196 mark against righties is the reason a platoon role makes sense once the roster is healthy.
Stanton is scheduled to take live batting practice next week. Because he is a designated hitter, he may not need a minor league rehab assignment. He could rejoin the Yankees by next weekend or shortly after. That timeline points Goldschmidt back toward a bench job with occasional starts against left-handers.
Goldschmidt insists he is at peace with the Yankees plan. For him, the focus has never been the box score. It has been the team, the chase, and the simple joy of still being on a major league field at 38.
“I just try to go have a good at-bat and try to help us win,” Goldschmidt said. “There’s going to be some ups and downs. I take it in stride, and most importantly, just try to be ready to play and win.”
What do you think? Shouldn’t the Yankees let him play more?
