When the Yankees announced they were bringing back Paul Goldschmidt for 2026, it went down somewhat like a lead balloon. He had gotten off to a nice start in 2025, but fell off down the stretch. That along with Ben Rice’s emergence seemingly made him expendable for 2026.
However, the Yankees opted to give him another year. In fairness, he did hit lefties quite well. He just ended up playing a bit more than ideal, dragging down his overall numbers. That being said, he was more than servicable in 2026
and hardly the roster’s main problem.
Grade: B
2026 Statistics: 105 games, 380 plate appearances, .252/.313/.452, 18 HR, 52 RBI, 111 wRC+, 1.6 fWAR
2027 Contract Status: Free agent
Initially, Goldschmidt was used mainly in just a platoon fashion. Through the end of May, he had appeared in 34 of the Yankees’ 59 games. Once again, he got off to a very nice start, posting a .261/.354/.496 slash line. Between injuries elsewhere in the lineup and the Yankees relying on him more after that hot start, he ended up appearing in 71 of the final 102 games.
In the end, the breakdown of his number of plate appearances against different handed pitchers didn’t end up being that drastic a difference. Of his 380 PAs, 183 were against lefties and 197 against righties. He was never going to only ever face lefties because that’s generally just not feasible, but the ideal plan probably wouldn’t have included that many against righties. Further evidence of that is that he posted a genuinely very good .967 OPS against lefties, compared to .590 against righties.
Goldschmidt had his moments over the course of the season. On June 13th in Toronto, he hit a go-ahead home run off the Blue Jays’ Louis Varland that ended up providing the final difference in a win.
It should be noted that Varland is a righty, so while his splits were drastic this season, playing him against righties wasn’t completely irredeemable. Additionally, Varland was also one of the best relievers in all of baseball this season and will probably get a non-zero number of votes in the AL Cy Young Award race this year. In general, Goldschmidt was a perfectly fine bench bat/platoon guy to have around. He just ended up getting used more than the Yankees planned on.
Now as we look ahead to the future, it’s difficult to make any legitimate argument to bringing Goldschmidt back again. His contract for 2026 was only one year. Goldschmidt himself wants to play on past this season. Between the way he hit lefties and the fact that he’s still a perfectly solid defender at first base, there will still probably be teams out there willing to give him another one-year contract for 2027.
However, when it comes to the Yankees, they got an even bigger breakout season from Ben Rice. They also acquired Luis García Jr. at the Trade Deadline. While García has opposite splits to Goldschmidt, he’ll also be getting games at first base. The team still hasn’t made a decision in regards to Giancarlo Stanton, and they’re also coming off a season when Aaron Judge missed a lot of time, so they might use him more at the DH spot. While the Yankees figured it out in 2026, there will be more to figure out in regards to Goldschmidt’s playable spots for 2027. I could totally picture Goldy OPSing .800+ against lefties again next year, but it’s probably for the best if he does so elsewhere.
Paul Goldschmidt is a likely future Hall of Famer. While his time with the Yankees was far too brief and far too insignificant compared to the rest of his career for him to go in as one, he’s been nice to have around for the past two seasons.
See more of the Yankees Roster Report Card series here.
