On Thursday, the STL Cardinals secured first baseman Paul Goldschmidt in a 5-year, $130M extension. Goldy joins an elite list of first basemen in Cardinals history.
For the seven seasons, Paul Goldschmidt (aka “Goldy”) has established himself as arguably the premier first baseman in MLB. The epitome of consistency in baseball, the STL Cardinals worked quickly to keep Goldy put after trading for him earlier this offseason.
On Thursday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Goldy would, in fact, stay in St. Louis as the Cardinals and the first baseman agreed on a 5-year extension.
Goldschmidt five-year deal with #STLCards expected to be right at $130M, sources tell The Athletic. No opt-outs, full no-trade clause. First on financial value: @dgoold.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 21, 2019
In doing so, Goldschmidt joins an elite class of first basemen to ever play for the prestigious Cardinals organization. Before we delve deeper into the members of that class, let’s take a look at what makes Goldy so good.
First and foremost, once installed as the Arizona Diamondbacks everyday first baseman, Goldy quickly demonstrated his prowess at the plate and on the field. At the plate, Goldschmidt averaged 29 HR, .299 BA, and a .934 OPS. On the field, he won three Gold Glove awards, reserved for the best defensive player at each position in each league.
What’s more, Goldy is somewhat of a modern-day “Iron Horse.” In each of his last four seasons, Goldy has played in at least 155 games. He missed significant time in 2014 after being hit by a pitch caused a fracture on his wrist.
Now, Goldschmidt will have big shoes to fill as he looks to join the aforementioned class of elite first basemen ever to don an STL Cardinals uniform.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the first member of this class.