Cardinals: MLB Insider says Paul Goldschmidt is best player in baseball

MLB Insider Jon Heyman says that St. Louis Cardinals superstar first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is best player in baseball.

At one point, it seemed almost impossible to get Paul Goldschmidt out. The St. Louis Cardinals star single handedly carried the team and kept them on pace with the Milwaukee Brewers while enhancing his MVP candidacy.

And Jon Heyman of the New York Post called Goldschmidt the best player in baseball, saying: “He has been a consistent force for the disappointing Cardinals, out hitting everyone, while leading the NL in average, OBP, slugging and OPS (he could become the first Cardinal to do that since Stan Musial in 1948).”

That’s high praise for Goldschmidt, who is ranked ahead of both Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. The other runners-up, according to Heyman, are Manny Machado and Jose Ramirez. And the praise for Goldschmidt is certainly warranted. Just look at his production in each month this season:

April/March: .282/.356/.372 with a .728 OPS, one home run and 10 RBI in 20 games.

May: .404/.471/.817 with a 1.288 OPS, 10 home runs and 33 RBI in 27 games.

June: .323/.427/.636 with a 1.064 OPS, eight home runs and 22 RBI in 27 games.

July: .275/.351/.353 with a .704 OPS, zero home runs and two RBI in 14 games.

Combined, Goldschmidt is hitting a monstrous .331/.413/.587 with a 1.001 OPS, 186 OPS+, 19 home runs and 67 RBI. It certainly has made him the favorite to win the National League MVP and, as Heyman said, puts him prominently in the conversation as the best player in baseball – even over Judge, Ohtani and others.

For the Cardinals, it will be vital for Goldschmidt to maintain this pace. If he does that and Nolan Arenado performs at an MVP level, they become a sneaky contender to represent the NL in the World Series – or at least make a deep postseason run.

But let’s just admire what Goldschmidt is doing right now. Because it’s pretty special.