Yankees accomplish first step of Cardinals coup by signing Paul Goldschmidt

The New York Yankees have continued their epic offseason reload after losing Juan Soto, signing former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5 million deal.

News of the signing comes fresh off reports late Friday evening that the Yankees had made an aggressive pivot to Goldschmidt following Christian Walker's signing with the Houston Astros, and in those same reports, it became clear that the Yankees would like to pair Goldschmidt with Nolan Arenado.

The Yankees have reportedly been in discussions with the Cardinals for Arenado this offseason and had a trade offer of Marcus Stroman for Arenado flat-out rejected by the Cardinals' front office already. Based on negotiations with the Houston Astros that fell through earlier this week, it would seem as though the Cardinals want to shed as much salary as possible in an Arenado deal, rather than take on the $18.5 million owed to Stroman in 2025 and $18 million vesting option for 2026.

Back to Goldschmidt, the former Cardinals' first baseman is now paired up with fellow 2022 MVP winner Aaron Judge in the Bronx. Both stars won the MVP award in the NL and AL back in 2022, as Goldschmidt finished the season batting .317/.404/.578 with 35 home runs and 115 RBI, good for a 175 wRC+.

Things have been in decline for Goldschmidt since then, as his wRC+ dropped to 122 in 2023 and now a league-average 100 in 2024. Goldschmidt's batting line during his final season in St. Louis was .245/.302/.414 with 22 home runs and 70 RBI. Goldschmidt was one of the worst hitters in baseball with runners in scoring position throughout the year, and he posted a career-high 26.5 K% and a career-low 7.2% walk rate.

Goldschmidt joins recent trade acquisitions Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams (formerly of NL Central rivals the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers) along with free-agent starter Max Fried in New York. After losing out on the historic bidding for Juan Soto to their cross-town rival the New York Mets, Brian Cashman and company have wasted no time in reloading their roster to try and get back to the World Series in 2025.

The odds of Nolan Arenado joining them in the Bronx just went up significantly. While I am sure he will still want to see if clubs like the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, or Los Angeles Dodgers are better fits for him, it has been reported by multiple outlets over the last few weeks that wherever Goldschmidt ends up could have an impact on where Arenado wants to play. The fact that the Yankees have already been pushing hard for him should add fuel to that fire.

John Mozeliak and the Cardinals' front office would love to get a deal done as soon as possible, but as we saw with Arenado blocking a trade to Houston, it may take some time for the third baseman to make up his mind. The Yankees may need time to get creative here as well, as they are getting closer and closer to their payroll number from 2024, and that's before even adding the salary of Arenado. They could look to offload Stroman to another team or see how they can make the money work in a deal with the Cardinals regardless.