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Paul Goldschmidt Plans To Continue Playing In 2025
Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is having the least-productive season of his storied big league career, but the soon-to-be 37-year-old made clear to MLB.com’s John Denton that he has every intention of continuing his career in 2025. The seven-time All-Star was named the National League MVP as recently as 2022, but he’s seen a notable drop-off in virtually every offensive category in 2024 — to the point where he for the first time in his career has been a below-average hitter (99 wRC+, 96 OPS+).
On the season, Goldschmidt carries just a .244/.302/.410 batting line. He’s still popped 20 home runs, but his 27.2% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rates are the worst of his career. To his credit, Goldschmidt has righted the ship of late; over his past 150 plate appearances, he’s slashing a much-improved .295/.342/.532 (141 wRC+). He’s still not walking anywhere near his career 12.7% rate (6.3% during this hot streak), but he’s cut his strikeout rate (23.3%) to be closer to his career levels.
Goldschmidt made no excuses regarding his struggles this year, noting that even spite of solid batted-ball and running metrics via Statcast, “there’s no denying I haven’t played well.” The five-time Silver Slugger winner acknowledged that his struggles have “created some bad habits” with his swing that have been hard to break. Fans of both the Cardinals and Goldschmidt will want to check out the interview in full, as Goldschmidt offers candid reviews of a down season at the plate. Denton also spoke with manager Oli Marmol who said he “loves” Goldschmidt when asked about a potential reunion for the upcoming 2025 season.
Obviously, that won’t be Marmol’s call at the end of the day. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak originally acquired Goldschmidt from the D-backs (in exchange for Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver, Andrew Young and a 2019 competitive balance draft pick the D-backs used to select Dominic Fletcher, whom they traded to acquire righty Cristian Mena this past offseason). The Cardinals quickly extended Goldschmidt on a five-year, $130MM contract, and he’s playing out the final season of what’s proven to be a good deal for the club at the moment.
The Cardinals reportedly have some interest in bringing Goldschmidt back, but there are in-house options to consider as well. Twenty-five-year-old Alec Burleson opened the season with two months of roughly average offense at the plate before catching fire in the summer. He’s now hitting .280/.320/.453 on the season overall. Burleson has primarily served as a corner outfielder and designated hitter in 2024, but he’s not a strong defender in the outfield. A move to first base could be of benefit, particularly if the Cardinals envision another shaky defender, Jordan Walker, as the team’s right fielder in future seasons.
There’s also 27-year-old Luken Baker to consider. While he’s older than the standard “prospect,” Baker bashed 33 home runs in just 84 Triple-A games in 2023 and has swatted another 32 big flies in 108 Triple-A games this season. He’s yet to hit in his tiny sample of 126 big league plate appearances (.202/.325/.356, 30.2% strikeout rate), but Baker’s Triple-A track record of hitting for power is intriguing. At the very least, his right-handed bat could pair with the lefty-swinging Burleson to form a platoon, with both players also seeing some time at designated hitter. Baker has decimated lefties this season, posting a 1.142 OPS and homering in 15 of his 150 plate appearances against them.
A Goldschmidt reunion would limit the playing time for both Burleson and Baker. It’d be understandable if the Cards’ front office wanted to take whatever resources would be put toward a Goldschmidt deal and reallocate them to pitching help. At the same time, if the Cards believe the late surge from Goldschmidt is a portent for a rebound in 2025, then re-signing him on a short-term deal has obvious appeal.
From a payroll vantage point, there’s a compelling case to use the resources elsewhere. The Cardinals’ payroll has landed within a couple million dollars of $180MM in each of the past two seasons ($183MM in 2024), and per RosterResource, they have about $111MM on next year’s books already. That doesn’t include decisions on the matching $12MM options on Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, nor does it include arbitration raises for Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero, John King, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Andre Pallante and Nolan Gorman.
Even at a presumably reduced rate from his current $26MM annual salary, Goldschmidt would likely still push the Cardinals north of $150MM (assuming arb raises for the entire class and just one of those two rotation options being picked up) before addressing any other potential offensive upgrades or starting pitching additions. That money could arguably be better spent focusing on other areas and turning first base over to a combination of Burleson and Baker — or perhaps simply a lower-cost free agent option (e.g. Carlos Santana).
Goldschmidt’s future is one of several key decisions for the Cardinals as they look to put disappointing 2023-24 seasons behind them. Last year’s club went 71-91, finishing last place in the NL Central. At 69-69, they’ll finish better than that in 2024, but they’re 5.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot with only 24 games to play, making a postseason berth overwhelmingly unlikely this season as well. That would be their first consecutive postseason misses since a three-year absence from playoff play in 2016-18 and mark just the third time since the turn of the century that St. Louis has missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
The Opener: Steele, Cole, MLBTR Chat
As MLB’s stretch run gets under way, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Steele scratched from scheduled start:
Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including ESPN’s Jesse Rogers) last night that ace southpaw Justin Steele had been scratched from his scheduled start today due to elbow soreness. No information is currently available regarding the severity of the issue or how much time the lefty is expected to miss. Rogers indicated that the club expects to know more about Steele’s situation today, while Steele’s teammate Jameson Taillon told reporters (including Rogers) after yesterday’s game that “From everything [he] heard, we’re hoping it’s just a quick thing.”
Regardless of if Steele only misses a start or two or is ticketed for a much longer absence, the news is a devastating blow to the Cubs as they struggle to remain relevant in the playoff picture. They currently sit 3.5 games back with just 3.7% odds at the playoffs per Fangraphs, and the loss of their ace could snuff out any remote hopes the club has of putting together a September surge. Steele missed time with a hamstring injury earlier this year, but in 22 starts, the 29-year-old has posted a 3.09 ERA with a 3.14 FIP in 128 innings. Those results are right in line with what Steele has done for three years running now, and his 3.10 ERA since the start of the 2022 season is fourth-lowest among pitchers with at least 400 innings, bested only by Justin Verlander, Max Fried, and Zack Wheeler.
2. Cole exits start due to cramping:
Steele wasn’t the only ace to have an injury scare yesterday, as Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole exited his start last night with what the club termed (as noted by The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner) a right calf cramp. The right-hander, who will celebrate his 34th birthday later this week, is set to be evaluated further today but told reporters (including MLB.com’s Drew Davison) that he isn’t “super concerned” about the issue. Cole likened the issue to one he previously encountered against the Dodgers last season, when he avoided the injured list and simply made his next start on an extra day of rest before returning to his routine without further issues.
After missing almost the entire first half with injury, Cole returned in June but hasn’t looked quite like himself over his 69 innings of work this year. His 4.12 FIP is the worst figure of his career, and his 3.65 ERA is the highest its been since the 2017 season during his time with the Pirates. Still, even that diminished level of production is quite valuable, particularly for a Yankees club that has seen its other starters put up a lackluster 4.65 ERA since the start of July.
3. MLBTR Chat Today:
With the calendar now flipped to September, all eyes are on the push to the postseason, where the Mets, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mariners lurk on the periphery of the playoff bubble. Much of the intrigue is focused on the race to the top two seeds in each league, which earn byes through the playoffs and have little certainty headed into the seasons final month. If you’re wondering about your team’s hopes of a World Series championship this fall or how your club could approach the coming offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams is holding a live chat with readers at 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Latest On Kyle Tucker
Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker hasn’t played in a big league game since fouling a ball off his leg on June 3. The club placed him on the 10-day injured list shortly thereafter, listing his injury as a right shin contusion, and it seemed like a short absence was possible. But weeks gradually turned into months without much progress being made towards a return and now Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Tucker suffered a fractured shin, even though it was never framed that way to reporters.
As noted by Rome, the club has described the injury using terms such as a “deep bruise of the bone” or a “shin contusion” but never used the word “fracture”. As recently as Saturday, general manager Dana Brown responded in the negative when asked if Tucker had a fracture, though he seemed to cop to it today.
“After several rounds of medical imaging, we suspect there was some type of small fracture,” Brown said this morning. “As with all injuries of this type, once the fracture heals it takes time for the muscles around the leg to regain strength. Tuck has worked extremely hard to get back on the field and thankfully is ready now to help us in September and in the postseason.”
The news at least provides some clarity on why Tucker’s absence has extended for as long as it has, but it does raise other questions. If it took the club three months to find the fracture, what took so long? If they knew all along, why keep it a secret? Members of the media have often expressed frustration about a lack of information coming from the club about its injured players. When Dusty Baker was still the manager, he would often cite HIPAA laws as a reason for not providing health updates (X links from Rome), despite the fact that other clubs regularly provide such information. Rome has also relayed (X link) that the club doesn’t make its trainer available to the media and says it is against the collective bargaining agreement, which is not true. He’s also relayed that the trainer has, in the past, discouraged players from speaking to the media about their injuries (X link). It seems this Tucker incident could perhaps be the latest and most extreme example of a strange organizational pattern.
Regardless, Tucker is now nearing a return. Pet Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle on X, manager Joe Espada said that Tucker is now running the bases at about 85% intensity and could rejoin the club soon.
Tucker was having an incredible season before the injury, hitting .266/.395/.584 for a 175 wRC+ through 60 games, in spite of a subpar .245 batting average on balls in play. Since the landed on the IL, the Astros have given right field playing time to each of Chas McCormick, Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, Mauricio Dubón, Trey Cabbage, Pedro León and Joey Loperfido before he was traded to the Blue Jays. Gamel is the only one in that group to have produced above-average offense this year and his output is propped up by a .410 BABIP in his 70 plate appearances, so getting Tucker back will obviously be a boost to the Astros.
Pirates Release Jose Rojas
The Pirates have released infielder/outfielder Jose Rojas, according to his transactions tracker on MLB.com. He’ll head back out to the open market and assess the options for his next opportunity.
Rojas, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in July. He got into 15 games for Triple-A Indianapolis, stepping to the plate 59 times. He hit just .192/.288/.423 in that small sample, seemingly weighed down by a .189 batting average on balls in play. His 20.3% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate in that time were solid and he hit three home runs. Regardless, the Bucs decided to move on.
Prior to signing with the Pirates, he was coming off a pretty good stretch of decent results. He started 2024 on a minor league deal with the Yankees and slashed .254/.359/.561 in 67 games for their Triple-A club, leading to a 131 wRC+. That deal with the Yankees came on the heels of a good year in Korea. He spent 2023 with the KBO’s Doosan Bears and slashed .253/.345/.474 for a 126 wRC+ in 122 games for them.
Rojas has 83 games of major league experience, which came with the Angels in 2021 and 2022. He didn’t hit well in that time, producing a line of .188/.245/.339. He can perhaps intrigue clubs by the strong results he’s had in the two years since, but it’s an awkward part of the calendar. Now that it’s September, he won’t be eligible to play in the postseason for any new club he signs with, while clubs out of contention would likely prefer to give playing time to guys who are younger and still developing. Rojas can provide defensive versatility, as he has played all of the non-shortstop infield positions as well as the outfield corners in his career.
Reds Outright Evan Kravetz, Davis Wendzel
Left-hander Evan Kravetz and infielder Davis Wendzel both passed through waivers unclaimed and have been sent outright to Triple-A Louisville, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com on X. Both players had been designated for assignment by the Reds in the past week.
Kravetz, 27, was just added to the roster last week, his first call to the majors. He got into one game, tossing two thirds of an inning without allowing a run, before being designated for assignment. Since he has just a few days of service time and no previous career outrights, he doesn’t have the right to reject this assignment.
He will therefore return to Louisville and provide the club with some left-handed depth in a non-roster capacity. He already has 42 1/3 innings tossed for the Bats this year with a 3.40 earned run average. His 11.7% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 25% of batters faced.
Wendzel, 27, was once a somewhat notable prospect in the Rangers’ system. That club selected him 41st overall in the 2019 draft but his bat never really lived up to expectations. From 2021 to the present, he has played in 338 minor league games with a combined slash line of .232/.338/.426, which translates to a 91 wRC+.
He got out to a strong start this year and got added to the Texas roster in April. Around multiple optional assignments, he hit just .128/.163/.234 in his first 47 major league plate appearances. His hot start in the minors also cooled, so that his line in Triple-A for the season is now .266/.361/.407. That includes stints with the Triple-A clubs of the Rangers and Reds, as he was designated for assignment by Texas at the end of July and flipped to Cincinnati for cash.
This time, no trade was possible with the deadline having passed and none of the 29 other clubs were willing to grab him off waivers. Like Kravetz, he will report to Louisville and provide the club with some non-roster depth. Wendzel has played all four infield positions in his career, so he can give the club cover all over the dirt.
Padres Designate José Azocar For Assignment
The Padres announced that they have reinstated outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. from the 60-day injured list, as previously reported. In corresponding moves, they optioned outfielder Bryce Johnson and designated outfielder José Azocar for assignment.
Azocar, 28, has been largely serving as a speed-and-defense depth player for the Padres in recent years. He has appeared in 214 games over the 2022-24 seasons but only been sent to the plate 397 times. He has produced a batting line of .243/.287/.322 in those trips to the plate, which translates to a 74 wRC+. But he has stolen 18 bases while also producing eight Outs Above Average and two Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield.
The Friars have frequently optioned him to the minors in that time but he will be out of options after this year. That would have made it harder for the Padres to keep him on the 40-man, so he’s been bumped off today. He also hasn’t helped his case much with the bat in the minors, as he has slashed .276/.309/.402 in 438 plate appearances at Triple-A since the start of 2023, production that leads to a wRC+ of 70.
Since we are in the post-deadline part of the schedule, the Friars will have to put Azocar on waivers in the coming days. If any club has interest in Azocar’s particular skill set, they could put in a claim and then keep Azocar on optional assignment for the rest of the year, though he will have less roster flexibility in the long run.
Red Sox Re-Sign Brad Keller To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox and Brad Keller have evidently reunited on another minor league deal, as he started for Triple-A Worcester yesterday. He had elected free agency last week after being designated for assignment but seems to have signed a fresh pact. If the deal was formalized prior to September 1, he will be postseason eligible with the Sox.
Keller, 29, has been on and off the Boston roster for the past few months. He actually started the season with the White Sox on a minor league deal. He was added to that club’s roster in late April but lasted about three weeks before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers and electing free agency.
He then signed with the Sox and was on their 40-man roster for a few months but elected free agency in mid-August when they attempted to option him to the minors. As a veteran with more than five years of service time, he can’t be optioned without his consent. He went to the open market but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal. He was added back to the roster last week but designated for assignment one day later, which led to another trip to free agency and this new minor league deal.
Around all of those transactions, Keller has managed to throw 41 1/3 innings over 16 appearances on the year, allowing 5.44 earned runs per nine. His 16.7% strikeout rate is below average but he has limited walks to a 7.8% clip while getting grounders on 50% of balls in play. He’s also logged 51 Triple-A innings on the year with a 4.06 ERA and similar peripherals.
Keller was once a strong rotation member with the Royals but his recent years have been fairly similar to his 2024 campaign. By the end of 2020, he had a 3.50 ERA in 360 1/3 innings but he has a 5.18 ERA in 360 frames from 2021 to the present.
The Red Sox recently lost James Paxton to the injured list for the rest of the year, putting him on the list of guys who won’t return to the club this season, next to Lucas Giolito, Garrett Whitlock and others. They currently have a rotation of Tanner Houck, Nick Pivetta, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Cooper Criswell. There are some workload concerns in there, as Houck, Crawford and Criswell have already set personal highs in terms of innings pitched in a season. Quinn Priester is another option on the 40-man roster but he has an 8.10 ERA in five Triple-A starts since being acquired from the Pirates.
If they need a spot start at some point this month or someone in that group needs to go on the injured list, Keller should be good to go since he pitched five innings yesterday. The Sox also have Josh Winckowski and Rich Hill on the roster but Hill hasn’t gone more than an inning and a third with the club so far. Winckowski has had plenty of multi-inning outings but hasn’t gotten into a game since August 23, so it might be hard for him to suddenly throw five or six innings on demand.
Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
The 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason or anything else baseball related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.
Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Padres To Reinstate Fernando Tatis Jr.
Outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. is going to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list today, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The outfielder is currently on the 60-day IL, so the Friars will need to make a move to open a 40-man roster spot for him.
Tatis, 25, was having a strong season before his injury interruption. He hit .279/.354/.468 in 80 games, producing a wRC+ of 133, while also stealing eight bases and getting defensive grades around league average. He had already accrued 2.3 wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs, in roughly half a season before suffering a right femoral stress reaction and landing on the injured list.
His return is surely good news for the Padres, though they will now have to make some tough decisions about playing time since so much of their lineup has been performing well. David Peralta has taken over right field while Tatis has been out and currently has a .272/.335/.426 line and 117 wRC+ on the year. Peralta could be moved over to left field but Jurickson Profar is having an even better year, with a .280/.382/.459 slash and 140 wRC+.
The designated hitter spot doesn’t really provide a solution either, as Luis Arráez is in there most days. He is playing through a torn ligament in his thumb and his production is down a bit from previous years, but his .309/.343/.384 line is still above league average, leading to a 106 wRC+. The club could put him at first base but that might exacerbate his thumb issue and Jake Cronenworth is having a solid season there anyway, hitting .249/.326/.408 for a 110 wRC+.
Cronenworth could move to second but the club has Xander Bogaerts there. Bogaerts isn’t having an amazing season overall but has been far better since returning from an IL stint due to a shoulder fracture. He’s hit .325/.360/.431 since coming off the IL for a 124 wRC+. Moving Bogaerts to shortstop while Ha-Seong Kim is on the IL could theoretically help with the logjam but Kim isn’t expected to be out for much longer.
It’s a good problem for the club to have and perhaps it will allow manager Mike Shildt to give all these players a bit of extra rest in the coming weeks. The Padres are tied with the Diamondbacks for the first and second Wild Card spots in the National League. Atlanta is in the third spot, three games back of San Diego and Arizona, with the Mets another game behind Atlanta. That doesn’t guarantee the Padres anything but perhaps everyone can get scattered off-days here and there to stay fresh for the final games on the schedule and then the postseason.