Goodbye Goldy, Arizona’s Legend it Couldn’t Capitalize On
Paul Goldschmidt is the best homegrown Arizona Diamondbacks player of all-time and it is not close.
Last week’s loss of a legend is sincerely soul-crushing for Arizona Diamondbacks fans. Although it is extremely rare in professional sports today, Paul Goldschmidt could’ve been a Diamondback for life, and it would have been a beautiful thing. He was the right combination of beloved, loyal, and content. Instead, he leaves after seven full seasons in which (discounting his first half-season) he made the All-Star team seven times, won three Golden Gloves, and finished second in MVP voting twice – all for a team that won 48% of its regular season games and exactly one postseason game.
The Diamondbacks came into existence at about the same time that I developed an ability to form memories. In fact, one of my earliest memories is attending their inaugural game in 1998. I love the D-backs for the same reason I love my family, I was born with them. I had no choice in the matter. The fact is, even if I was freed to “pick” another team, perhaps one with a bigger budget, I would never do it. One of the idiosyncratic beauties of baseball is that not all teams are created equal, there are the haves and the have nots. The margin for error for a smaller market team is razor thin, a few financial misfires threatens to sink an organization in this position, and that makes success all the more fulfilling.
Paul Goldschmidt’s combination of opposite field power, ability to walk and see pitches, gold glove caliber fielding, and seemingly inhuman humility are even more astounding when you consider that they come from an 8th round pick — the 246th player taken in the 2009 MLB draft. But even when a fiscally disadvantaged team like the Diamondbacks strikes gold in the draft, they face difficulty in locking up players long term. The difference, in this situation, is that Goldy is undyingly loyal, in love with Arizona, and assuredly anti-greedy. His first extension with the team was for remarkably less than he could’ve commanded on the open market. He was willing to take a pay cut to stay a D-back. He was an exceptional case, and had things not been so mangled by previous management regimes, he very well may have played out his career in Arizona.
An Era of Failed Management
The past cannot be changed, and although Kevin Towers and Dave Stewart have been fired, their mishaps sealed Goldy’s fate. Had deals not been made for Zack Greinke, Yasmany Tomas, and Shelby Miller among others, things may have turned out differently.
Of course, if the Diamondbacks’ extravagantly rich owner, Ken Kendrick, waved his finger, more money would appear. But, that’s another can of worms, and it is being tackled artfully.
Given the way that the MLB operates in 2018, current GM Mike Hazen, who seems to be the most competent Arizona has seen in many years, had his hands tied. Resigning Goldy to the deal he deserves at the end of 2019 was hard to imagine given the team’s current debilitating payroll obligations. By most accounts, the return on Goldy was good, but it does little to distract from the painful reality of an era blessed with a generational talent, yet disgracefully mismanaged.
The Diamondbacks brought Arizona their only championship, but that was nearly 20 years ago. As a mid-market team, the unbelievable fortune of drafting an absurdly humble MVP caliber talent in the 8th round must be capitalized upon.
Outside of the team’s NLDS loss his rookie season (in which he was called up in September) the Diamondbacks managed to win just one postseason game in Goldschmidt’s seven full seasons with the team. This failure rests on the shoulders of the previous management and it is towards them that Diamondbacks fans should direct their disappointment.
An Era of Humbly Exuberant Moments
I’m not entirely sure why, but the memory of Goldy that stands out most clearly in my mind comes from June 18, 2013.
I was at a sports bar in Ahwatukee that I had never been to before and have not returned to since. My buddies and the rest of the patrons were transfixed by what was becoming the legendary Game 6 of the NBA finals in which Ray Allen’s miraculous game-tying 3 saved LeBron and The Heat.
Unlike seemingly anyone else at the establishment though, I was eyeing a tucked away TV showing the Arizona Diamondbacks locked in a 2-2 tie late in a game against the last-place Marlins. Goldy led off the 9th with a beautiful walk-off home run to straightaway center and no one in the bar appeared to notice.
I gave a lonely fist pump and delightfully watched Goldschmidt smiling shyly and rounding the bases in seeming anonymity — the perfect Goldy moment.
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An Era to (Hopefully) Learn From
Timing is everything in relationships, life, and baseball. The Paul Goldschmidt era in Arizona was largely a dysfunctional one, but it is him, rather than incompetent management that we will remember it by.
He was the most comforting of cornerstones, by all accounts an exceptional teammate, player, and person. We are as sad and sickened as sports can make us to see him go. The lineup will feel naked without him.
He is the greatest Diamondback position player of all time and was never surrounded by a team capable of playing past the divisional series. It is some strange consolation to Arizona Diamondbacks fans that he is now in the hands of such a proven and competent organization.
In St. Louis, he will hit home runs, see an exorbitant amount of 3-2 counts, win gold gloves and contend for an MVP and a World Series.
Next. Rangers top 10 prospects. dark
Arizona Diamondbacks fans have nothing but love for him, and nothing but hope that a player of his caliber will fall into its arms once again. Maybe next time, the team can support him with the sensical and successful team that he deserves.