St. Louis Cardinals: The Paul Goldschmidt recruitment secret is out

The St. Louis Cardinals’ top brass officially let the cat out of the bag that they are interested in keeping new first baseman Paul Goldschmidt long term.

The St. Louis Cardinals have still made the biggest single-player addition of any team this offseason. Many fans are still clamoring for more additions (me included), but we can’t forget that the best player changing jerseys this offseason will be putting on the birds on the bat.

Trading for Paul Goldschmidt brought the Cardinals a new star to tout as well as strengthened the three hole in the lineup that has been a problem for years. One of the only problems with Goldschmidt is that he is a free agent after this year. That fact definitely brought down the superstar’s price tag, but giving up Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver and Andy Young will hurt if Goldschmidt is only in St. Louis Cardinals’ red for one year.

Fans everywhere, especially myself, have been thinking that the Cardinals should be looking to extend Goldschmidt since the day the trade was announced. I examined what an extension would look like here.

While fans have been begging the Cardinals to extend Goldschmidt, the front office of the Cardinals played it cool with the slugger from the beginning, allowing him to begin to acclimate to calling a new city home for the first time in his career. John Mozeliak continually described the team’s focus as completely on 2019 from the time that Goldschmidt was acquired.

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This attitude seems to have changed after the recent Winter Warm-up event in St. Louis where Goldschmidt got to meet more fans and interact with the media. At the event, St. Louis Cardinals’ owner, Bill Dewitt Jr. said, “We’d love to have him here longer than one year, and we’ll just see how that plays out.”

How many times have the Cardinals not said anything about what their plans are? They always keep their cards close to their chest. For the owner of the team, the man who signs all the checks, to say that he wants a player to stay with the club, that means something.

The Cardinals seem to hope that Goldschmidt follows in similar footsteps of former slugger, Matt Holliday‘s first couple years with the club.

After being traded to the Cardinals in 2009, Holliday ‘left’ in free agency and then resigned a 7 year, $120M deal with the club at 30 years old. Why wouldn’t the Cardinals want to re-sign Goldschmidt to a slightly shorter long term deal? Players and other members of the media continue to champion Goldschmidt as the perfect Cardinal. A humble, team and community focused player who just wants to win? The fit is obvious.

Some readers will most likely say that this article is pointless and there is not any news here, but I beg to differ. The Cardinals had continued to say they weren’t going to push Goldschmidt on an extension, and now this is proof that there may be more happening now. The recruitment train seems to have left the station, officially.

I have no clue when an extension could happen, if it is going to happen. The Cardinals will surely remain in contact with Goldschmidt’s agent. While Goldy is going to be 32 by the time he would hit free agency, he will no doubt continue to be a superstar producer at the plate. One small benefit of the current free agency climate, is that players may actually be scared to hit free agency. Who knows if that’s true, but it would make sense with how little money is being handed out on the open market.

Hopefully Paul Goldschmidt falls in love with this town. We don’t think it’s ‘boring’ as certain other players may think. Signing Goldschmidt to a five year deal gives the Cardinals a leader and a star for the length of that deal, hopefully the Cardinals extend him before he gets to free agency. That gives them the best chance to keep him for sure.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ top brass officially let the cat out of the bag that they are interested in keeping new first baseman Paul Goldschmidt long term.

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