St. Louis Cardinals: Paul Goldschmidt agrees to five year extension

The St. Louis Cardinals have locked up their newest superstar for the next five years. Was the contract a great deal for the slugger?

According to multiple sources, the St. Louis Cardinals have given star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt a contract extension. The deal will be five years and worth $130 million. The deal will begin in 2020 and last until the end of the 2024 season.

At the beginning of the offseason, the Cardinals acquired Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly, and Andrew Young. All three are solid players, but would have been blocked either way. The Goldschmidt deal was arguably the biggest trade of the offseason, and a drastic improvement for the Cardinals.

To say that Goldschmidt has had a good career so far is an understatement. He has six All-Star nods, four Silver Sluggers, and three Gold Gloves to his name. He has even finished in the top 3 in NL MVP voting on three occasions, but the 31-year-old has not won an MVP yet. According to “The Shredder” on MLB Network, he is the best first baseman in all of baseball, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out with his resume.

Goldschmidt was set to hit the open market at the end of the season as a free agent if he had not been resigned. With Nolan Arenado being locked up by the Colorado Rockies on a eight year, $260 million deal, Goldschmidt would have arguably been the biggest name on the free agent market. Extending Goldschmidt was a priority for the Cardinals front office, and they showed that today by extending him through the 2024 season.

Though Goldschmidt has yet to take an official at-bat with the St. Louis Cardinals, he still got his huge deal he would have probably been seeking come November. This contract will also be the biggest contract the Cardinals have ever given to a player, surpassing Matt Holliday‘s seven year, $120M contract way back in 2010.

St. Louis Cardinals everywhere should be excited to see their newest superstar sporting the birds on the bat for the next six seasons.