New York Yankees First Base Upgrade May Be Most Significant Offseason Move

The New York Yankees upgrade at the first base position could prove to be the most important upgrade they've made all offseason.

Michael Brauner | Feb 6, 2025

Sep 22, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (46) fields a ground ball against the Cleveland Guardians during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. / Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

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New York Yankees

The New York Yankees have made a fair number of significant moves since losing their superstar to the New York Mets when Juan Soto signed his megadeal to go to Queens.

Almost immediately, the Yankees signed a second ace at the top of the rotation to pair with Gerrit Cole in Max Fried. Other moves have included trading for one of the best relievers in all of baseball in Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers as well as a trade with the Chicago Cubs for a serious outfield upgrade in Cody Bellinger.

With all the big moves however, there's one which went relatively under the radar at the time, but could prove to be New York's most significant acquisition of the offseason.

The Yankees signing St. Louis Cardinals legendary first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5 million deal may not have sent shockwaves across Major League Baseball.

Though it wasn't necessarily seen as earth shattering, it's an absolutely massive move even with Goldschmidt entering the final years of his career and boasting numbers which have begun to sharply decline.

For one, it must be considered how bad things were at the position for New York in 2024. With a .619 OPS as a group for the year from first base, the Yankees ranked dead last in baseball in that category.

Anthony Rizzo and Ben Rice, who took the majority of the at bats at the position and posted marks of .638 and .608 respectively, were liabilities at the plate. Rizzo posted a .228 average while Rice had just a .171 in the 50 games he played.

For as bad as things were, New York simply didn't have other options and were forced to keep rolling with what they had.

Granted, Goldschmidt is coming off the worst offensive campaign of his career and turned 37 years old back in September. On paper, there's not much reason to think that all of the sudden he will have a career resurgence, though he is certainly a better player still than the .716 OPS and .245 average showed, and he still found a way to hit 22 home runs.

Goldschmidt is just two years removed from what was the best season of his career in 2022 and his first MVP award after five previous Top-5 finishes including two second place finishes. That year, the seven-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner hit .317 with an OPS of .981 with 35 home runs and 115 RBIs.

Expecting the veteran to produce anywhere near that level is obviously far from realistic, however he has proven to be capable of hitting at a level which would place him as a severe upgrade over what the team had this past season.

Not to mention still providing an elite glove on top of veteran leadership in the infield.

Goldschmidt isn't going to look like the MVP version of himself and probably not close to it.

But the slugger who is one of the best and most underrated players of this last generation is beyond capable of plugging what was a major black hole in the lineup in 2024 and potentially turning first base into a strength for the first time in a long time for the Yankees.

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