NL Notes: D’Backs, Goldschmidt, Giants, Scherzer, McEwing

Tyler Locklear will begin the season on the injured list while rehabbing from elbow and shoulder surgeries, leaving the Diamondbacks thin on the first base depth chart.  The left-handed hitting Pavin Smith will get at least a share of the regular at-bats, but given Smith’s struggles against southpaws, a right-handed bat would be a useful platoon partner or a candidate for DH time.  With this in mind, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7FM radio believes the D’Backs will “kick the tires on a reunion with Paul Goldschmidt” this winter.

Goldschmidt spent the first eight seasons of his outstanding career with the Snakes, making six All-Star appearances while hitting .297/.398/.532 with 209 homers over 4708 plate appearances.  Traded to the Cardinals prior to the 2019 season, Goldschmidt kept up much of that form over his six-year run in St. Louis, but he has just about been a league-average bat (102 wRC+) over his last two seasons and 1188 PA with the Cardinals and Yankees.  Playing with New York last year, Goldschmidt had a hot start but faded down the stretch, leading the Yankees to give Ben Rice an increasingly large share of the first base playing time.

Now entering his age-38 season, Goldschmidt may no longer be an ideal everyday option, but he had a .336/.411/.570 slash line in 168 PA against lefties in 2025.  These splits will get him looks from multiple teams in free agency, and returning to his original team in a timeshare with Smith seems like a pretty decent fit for all parties.

More from around the National League…

• Joe McEwing and the Cardinals “mutually agreed to part ways,” according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.  McEwing spent the first two years of his playing career in St. Louis in 1998-99, and returned to the organization as manager Oliver Marmol’s bench coach prior to the 2023 season after over a decade on the White Sox coaching staff.  The bench coaching job lasted only one year, as McEwing spent the last two seasons as a special assistant to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak.  With Chaim Bloom now taking over the PBO role, it could be that Bloom is looking to make some more organizational changes, or McEwing could be moving on to explore other coaching or front office roles.
• The Giants seem to be nearing an unique managerial choice in Tony Vitello, as it would represent the first time that a big league team has hired a college coach who had no prior experience in any aspect of pro baseball.  The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly looks at some of the details involved in San Francisco’s pursuit, and suggests that Max Scherzer could be a free agent target if Vitello is indeed hired.  Back when Vitello was an assistant coach at the University of Missouri, he recruited Scherzer to pitch at the school, and the two have stayed great friends over the last two decades.  The Giants are known to be looking for pitching, and Scherzer could essentially replace Justin Verlander as the rotation’s seen-it-all veteran voice.  As Baggarly puts it, “who better than Scherzer to ensure that Vitello gets full buy-in from even the most skeptical veteran player in the room?”  The 41-year-old Scherzer posted only a 5.19 ERA over 85 innings in an injury-shortened regular season for the Blue Jays, but he delivered a strong start to get the win for Toronto in Game 4 of the ALCS.