Cardinals All-Star Slugger Predicted To Get $18 Million Contract

The Cardinals have some tough choices to make in the near future

Feb 26, 2021; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the stadium at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training workouts. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

Soon enough, free agents will start coming off the board.

The Major League Baseball offseason is here and is about to get exciting. Rumors are starting to pick up about where players will land. The St. Louis Cardinals may not be a hot landing spot for external free agents this winter, but some members of the organization will be highly sought-after.

One player who should do well in free agency certainly is star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. He had a down year from his perspective in 2024, but he still was an above-average first baseman who could help a contender.

ESPN's Kiley McDaniel put together a list of the top 50 free agents heading into the offseason with contract predictions and had Goldschmidt at No. 37 with a contract prediction of $18 million over one year.

"Projected Contract: one year, $18 million," McDaniel said. "It also made some sense for Goldschmidt to accept the qualifying offer if the Cardinals offered it, but they didn't. As a 37-year-old first baseman, he wasn't going to get a long-term deal even with a huge 2024 performance, but there are some signs that Goldschmidt's mediocre 2024 isn't a harbinger of a bad 2025. His wOBA (all-encompassing hitting metric) was .310 last season, but his expected wOBA (based on how hard he hit the ball, launch angles, etc.) was much higher at .333.

"On top of that, he made a real improvement in the second half, cutting his strikeout rate from 28% to 24% and improving his isolated power from .143 to .210. Those second-half numbers are in line with his recent three-to-five WAR seasons, which would mean landing him at near a QO level on a one-year deal could be a nice value for a club unless he starts showing his age in underlying and surface numbers in 2025."

Goldschmidt shined with St. Louis but his time with the team could be coming to an end.

More MLB: Cardinals $75 Million Star May Be Open To Return, Per Insider