Paul Goldschmidt wants to keep playing baseball in 2025.
He recently told MLB.com’s John Denton, “Yeah, I want to play next year; I want to continue to play. Actually, I haven’t let any of my thoughts get past that statement right there. I owe it to this team and organization to give everything to this year, and that’s 100 percent where my thoughts are. But, yes, I want to keep playing.” This decision wasn’t obvious because he turns 37 on September 10, and first basemen don’t usually play into their late thirties.
In 2022, Goldschmidt had an amazing season with a career-best OPS+ of 177 and hit 35 home runs. Last season, his numbers dropped to a 120 OPS+ with 25 homers. So far in the current season through 131 games, he has an OPS+ of 96 with 20 home runs. His ability to make hard contact remains but his discipline at the plate has worsened —he’s posting career-low stats in walk percentage, strikeout percentage, chase rate, and whiff rate.
Goldschmidt’s Future Prospects:
Despite these struggles, he’s well-liked by teammates and still performs well against opposite-handed pitchers. If he accepts a smaller role like being part of a first-base platoon as the right-handed hitter, teams might still be interested because of his impressive career stats including seven All-Star selections and a WAR of 62.6.
Fans might think it’s great that he’s not ready to hang up his cleats yet.
Goldschmidt’s current contract is ending this year; it’s worth $130 million from an extension signed before the 2020 season. While there have been some talks about him staying with St. Louis for another year, nothing official has happened yet. This means he could become a free agent soon alongside big names like Juan Soto from the New York Yankees.
What do you think about Goldschmidt’s plans?
