The Yankees initially decided to bring in Paul Goldschmidt ahead of the 2025 campaign to be their first baseman. Throughout the first couple months, the signing was a coup, as he hit a scalding .338/.394/.495 with a 148 wRC+. Plenty of folks in the Yankees’ orbit thought that he had found the Fountain of Youth. Come June, the worm turned, and it got ugly. Goldschmidt hit just .226/.277/.333 with a 69 wRC+ from that point on, ceding time at first to the emerging Ben Rice after manager Aaron Boone
had to concede that the veteran was no longer an everyday bat.
Then, New York opted to bring back Goldschmidt for 2026, but this time, he came with a manual: Don’t play him absolutely every day, generally stick to southpaws, and the 38-year-old might actually remain a useful player all year. It’s obviously too early to tell whether that strategy will actually work, since it’s May, but the early returns are promising. The former MVP is enjoying an amazing start to the season.
As of now, Goldschmidt is slashing an excellent .284/.391/.581 with five home runs and a 172 wRC+ in 87 plate appearances. The sample is still very small, yes, but Goldy is absolutely locked in. He is even hitting holding his own against righties with a 93 wRC+ (compared to 74 last year), in addition to absolutely murdering lefties (231 wRC+).
Goldschmidt didn’t overhaul his swing or mechanics, but he is showing some elite underlying stats that suggest he can remain a productive offensive player for the Yankees as long as he is being used properly. His .631 expected slugging percentage is actually higher than his .581 SLG, and his xwOBA is a cool .448, even better than his .422 wOBA. His 19.3-percent barrel rate would actually be among the very best in the league if he were a qualified hitter.
Part of his success this year can be explained by the fact that Goldschmidt is swinging more often, particularly at the first pitch. His career first-pitch swing rate is 25.6 percent, and entering yesterday, it was at 38.6 this year, which would be a career-high. His swing percentage has gone from 47.8 percent last year (and 43 percent in his career as a whole) to 49.2 percent in 2026 through the start of play of Wednesday.
The extra aggressiveness has resulted in some loud and productive contact. Remember, some of the best pitches to hit are often the first few ones in an at-bat. Twice in the past couple weeks, the Yankees started him at leadoff against a southpaw, and he took the first pitch of the ballgame out, first against Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers and then off Toronto’s Patrick Corbin.
Additionally, a whopping 22.6 percent of Goldschmidt’s batted balls have been pulled in the air, by far a career-best and significantly higher than his 16.6 percent mark over his entire MLB tenure. It’s not a secret that pulling the ball in the air is directly correlated with power production, especially coupled with an elite 56.6 percent hard-hit rate. Now, will these trends last all of 2026? Probably not, but they’re more encouraging signals of future success than the out-of-character .382 BABIP that powered his sensational start to 2025.
More importantly, with Rice blossoming into a truly elite hitter and multiple All-Star-caliber outfielders, the Yankees can afford to keep Goldschmidt fresh while also giving him relevant playing time. It seems like the perfect formula to try and get the best out of him for the entire season. They might have to use him a little more in certain situations—like amid the current crunch with Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez out while Trent Grisham also nurses a leg injury—but for the most part, they should be able to be selective. The man has played more games than anyone in baseball since the start of 2012 and could use the extra time off his feet.
At this moment in time, Goldschmidt deserves a lot of credit for being a key component of the Yankees’ offense. A 172 wRC+ approaching his 39th birthday in September is nothing to sneeze at, and while 83 plate appearances aren’t a whole lot, they are definitely not insignificant.
For whatever it’s worth—more so I suppose to roster construction under Hal Steinbrenner’s balance sheet than anyone else—the Yankees are getting considerable value for their buck, as Goldschmidt is playing on a $4 million salary in 2026. It’s not even June, and the veteran infielder has already been worth $8 million this year, according to FanGraphs. It’s not an exact science, but it’s already a good deal.
Again, Goldschmidt’s biggest challenge will be maintaining this production over the course of the entire year, or at least something close to this level. He is one of the most durable major leaguers in recent history, a pro’s pro with an impeccable work ethic and a desire to remain at the top, so he definitely has a chance to be a key contributor at very least.
