St. Louis Cardinals: How has Paul Goldschmidt done this spring?

The biggest player moved all offseason hasn’t been the talk of the Spring for the St. Louis Cardinals. Let’s check in on Paul Goldschmidt and see how he’s done.

As I was debating what to write about next here at Redbird Rants, I scrolled back through some of our recent articles and a trend hit me. The majority of what has been written on by myself and others lately has been about things that are going wrong or are not impact positions on the St. Louis Cardinals.

It is important to cover spring roster battles at the last bench spot or the backup catcher position. but at the end of the day, those aren’t going to affect the majority of everyday games for the Cardinals in the regular season. I think of those topics as spicy appetizers that absolutely have their place, but at the end of the day, people are just excited for their porterhouse that’s on the way.

So with that in mind, let me give you an update on that porterhouse that the Cardinals picked up over the offseason: Paul Goldschmidt.

The Bryce Harpers and Manny Machados of the world have finally found their new regular season homes, but there is no debate that they were not the biggest star changing uniforms this offseason. Sure, Machado and Harper were Ribeyes and New York Strips, but at the end of the day, nothing can beat a big ‘ole porterhouse.

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Other than a couple of stories by the St. Louis Post Dispatch this Spring on Goldschmidt’s wonderfully perfect fit into Cardinals culture, there hasn’t been much written about his play on the field. This isn’t completely surprising as I have been beating the “Spring stats don’t matter” drum pretty hard lately, which I won’t back down from.

Paul Goldschmidt’s current performance doesn’t matter, but I can’t help but indulge myself in at least checking in on him. For the most part, I think it’s a good thing that Goldy hasn’t been the title of a lot of headlines because he’s doing just what he should be doing: acclimating to a new team while still stinging the ball with the bat. I say this because if you pay attention to the majority of Spring headlines, not being in the news usually means you are doing the right thing.

So far this Spring, the 31-year-old has played in 11 games (one of which I had the pleasure of watching) while batting a cool .308. This average is a bit down from where it was last week but still is right where it needs to be. The great thing to see is that Goldy pairs that solid average with a .438 OBP.

Goldy has hit for next to no power (no homers and only two doubles) but I would still say he is getting himself locked in like the superstar veteran he is. Why do I say this? Goldy has walked six times and struck out just five. What this says to me is that he is up at the plate just trying to see a lot of pitches and get his eye trained up to track the ball. When he sees a pitch he likes, just put a good swing on it and don’t try to do too much.

There are no extra points for hitting homers in Spring Training. Swinging for the fences is not worth the injury risk, especially for a 31-year-old.

Looking back at some of Goldschmidt’s past Springs, there’s not too much of a trend of him not hitting for power, but he is also getting a bit older in an age where he may not see the reward of hitting a couple of homers worth the risk of injury. I’m not gonna keep guessing on what he’s thinking as I have next to zero authority to talk on the subject.

The only other thing that I have to wonder about when it comes to Goldschmidt is if the team has approached him any more about a contract extension. There were multiple media outlets that suggested an extension, at the earliest, could come at the end of Spring (THEY DID NOT PREDICT OR HAVE ANY REPORTS ON THIS THEY JUST SAID THAT THE EARLIEST TIME WHEN IT MIGHT HAPPEN IF IT’S GOING TO). I wouldn’t guess that it would happen soon but I’d be curious where the talks are.

In short, Goldschmidt is doing exactly what we should want him to do. I wanted to show him some love because not many people have talked about his on-field performance this spring. He is not causing any drama, just getting himself ready for the regular season. That is my favorite type of player.