Thrust into larger role with Yanks, Goldy proving 'he's still got it'

This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- Paul Goldschmidt has been around long enough to appreciate the nickname. Jasson Domínguez is still fresh enough in the league to mean it.

When Domínguez recently revealed that he has been calling his veteran teammate “Young Goldy,” Goldschmidt viewed it as praise. It’s a label he’s proud to wear, especially in a season where he has been out-producing players a decade his junior.

“I’ve maybe heard him say it a couple of times when I’ve got a hit or I’ve hit a homer or something,” Goldschmidt said, with a smile. “I guess that’s a good compliment.”

Goldschmidt is 38, which isn’t old. It’s only when you realize that when Goldschmidt was born, the Yankees’ double-play combination was Willie Randolph and Wayne Tolleson, that it begins to sound positively Mesozoic inside a baseball clubhouse.

And yet, as Domínguez gushed admiringly, “He’s still got it.”

Goldschmidt has been among the Majors’ most productive hitters of late, posting a .333/.347/.623 slash line with six home runs and 18 RBIs across 17 June games.

Only Matt Chapman (22), Jackson Chourio (22), Dillon Dingler (21) and Nick Kurtz (20) have more June RBIs than Goldschmidt, who has responded well since being pressed into everyday duty -- a role that no one could guarantee was in the cards.

Despite a decorated career that has included an MVP and seven All-Star selections, Goldschmidt lingered on the free-agent market until January, when he signed a one-year, $4 million contract.

There was no extravagant offer; the club was looking for players who hit left-handed pitchers well, which is why Amed Rosario was also re-signed.

With Ben Rice’s emergence and Giancarlo Stanton expected to serve as the DH, the front office was in no position to promise playing time. Goldschmidt was told he would probably be in a bench role, and that sounded fine.

“I don’t think there was a sales pitch,” Goldschmidt said. “I just loved these guys. I enjoyed even the times last year when I wasn’t playing, and that’s not always the case. Even the beginning of this year, I wasn’t playing that much, but I was still having so much fun showing up every day with these guys.”

Goldschmidt’s leadership was a baked-in bonus. Manager Aaron Boone, for one, has called Goldschmidt “an amazing force with our team and our culture.”

Boone acknowledged that with Rice ready to take on a larger role, Goldschmidt didn’t seem like a perfect fit, but he’s experienced enough seasons to know how fast things can change.

“You're going to have attrition throughout the course of the year,” Boone said. “You're going to get banged up over the course of the year, and our confidence in his ability to still really kill lefties is there -- plus just who he is in the room and who he is on the team. I was thrilled when we got it done.”

It turned out to be a valuable insurance policy. Once Stanton’s calf injury opened the DH role, the Yankees have seen double-barrel production from both Rice and Goldschmidt.

“He’s a Hall of Fame player. It’s pretty obvious,” Carlos Rodón said recently. “He’s been really good at this game for a long time. I just hope he keeps swinging.”

Goldschmidt said he did not change anything drastically over the winter, coming off a season in which he batted .274 with 10 homers, 45 RBIs and a .731 OPS. Yet he’s already surpassed that home run total, currently hitting for an OPS 170 points higher.

“It wasn’t like I played horrible; I thought I did some good things last year,” Goldschmidt said. “There’s a lot of time left in the season. I’ve tried, honestly, to not even focus on the stats. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I want to go out and prove I can play.’ It was just that I want to try to help us win, in whatever the role is.”

So, to circle back to what Domínguez has been saying -- does he feel young? Goldschmidt said the answer depends on the day.

“I feel good enough to go out there and play, and I think that’s what is most important,” Goldschmidt said. “I try not to live in the past. I think I probably do some things better than when I was younger because of experience, and probably some things not as well.”

That perspective, he said, came with time. Goldschmidt said his experience with the 2021 Cardinals, who lost to the Dodgers in the NL Wild Card Game, was instrumental.

“When we lost, we had a lot of guys on our team whose career was over, like Andrew Miller,” he said. “I even saw it the next year in ’22, guys I played with and against. At the beginning or middle of your career, you feel like you’re going to play forever.

“You get towards the end and you realize it’s not going to last forever. I definitely try to enjoy it a little bit more now, knowing that there’s only so many days and years left. Those thoughts are always on my mind. I just think it’s a blessing to play this game every day, even more than I realized.”