Age seems to be catching up to St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. It was not that long ago when he won his first (and only, so far) Most Valuable Player in the big leagues in 2022, but the 36-year-old veteran's form at the plate hasn't been anywhere close to that since. Thus far in the 2024 MLB regular season, Goldschmidt is slashing just .225/.287/.372, leading to Cards manager Oliver Marmol's decision to move him down to No. 7 in the batting order.
Prior to that, Goldschmidt had not batted from that spot in almost 12 years.
Goldschmidt, however, doesn't seem to have an issue with the Cardinals' move, as he's very much aware of his offensively disappointing performance this season.
“I want to play better and I haven’t done that. That’s the moral of the story — I just haven’t played well this whole year and it’s cost us some games at times,” Goldschmidt said amid his batting order demotion (via John Denton of MLB.com).
“No one hates it more than me. I haven’t done a good enough job of that, but I’ll continue to work to make adjustments that might help us win,” Goldschmidt added.
Paul Goldschmidt produced right away after notable Cardinals move
Goldschmidt batting seventh immediately produced a good result for the Cardinals, as he mashed a solo home run in the second inning of Sunday's series finale against the Atlanta Braves on the road.
However, Goldschmidt was not able to follow up on that dinger with productive trips to the plate, as he finished the contest 1-for-4 with zero walks and two strikeouts. Nevertheless, the Cardinals scored a 6-2 win to take the series, two games to one. That home run was also just Goldschmidt's first since hitting one in a July 10 loss at home at the hands of the Kansas City Royals.
Still, Marmol seems pleased with Goldschmidt's current setup.
“Always good to see him smile,” Marmol said of Goldschmidt after the seven-time All-Star provided fireworks at the plate against the Braves, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).
“The looser he plays, the better he gets. Seeing him homer today was obviously fun. Hopefully he can build off of that. He’s a really good hitter.”
Goldschmidt entered the series finale battle against the Braves having not batted deeper than fifth in the Cardinals' order. He has spent most of his time batting third with 44 games in that slot followed by 22 out of the fourth spot. He's also had 20 games batting second and eight at No. 5.
The hope for the Cardinals is that Goldschmidt, who will be a free agent by the end of the 2024 MLB season, will be able to recapture some of his magic and start hitting like his old self again.
The last truly great season for Goldschmidt was his aforementioned MVP campaign when he batted .317/.404/.578 with .981 OPS and a career-high 177 OPS+. Strikeouts have been a major issue for Goldschmidt this season. He woke up on Sunday with a 28.6 percent strikeout rate — the worst since he had a 29.9 K% in his first year in the big leagues way back in 2011. His walk rate is also at its lowest in his MLB career.
Despite Goldy's struggles, the Cardinals are inside the wild-card picture in the National League with a 52-77 record.
St. Louis, on a two-game win streak, will next see action this Monday for the start of a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.
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