New Yankees 1B Paul Goldschmidt looking to bounce back from down 2024 season: ‘I’m better than this’

Paul Goldschmidt has built up quite the resume over the course of his 14 big league seasons, including:

But one thing the 37-year-old has never experienced during his time as a big leaguer? Free agency.

That is, until this offseason, when the former Arizona Diamondback and St. Louis Cardinal signed a one-year, $12.5 million with the Yankees.

“Obviously, I was really excited,” Goldschmidt said as he was introduced as a Yankee via a video conference. “Free agency is kind of a long, slow process but it kind of looked like it was coming to a head there. It got to a point where there was a decision to be made, and for me I was very, very excited to be a Yankee and glad it worked out.”

As strong as Goldschmidt’s career numbers are (.892 OPS, 362 homers, 1,187 RBI), he hit free agency on the heels of his worst pro season, as he slashed just .245/.302/.414 with 22 homers and 65 RBI in 154 games.

Asked about his struggles last season, Goldschmidt said that at times he was being too patient at the plate, but he used the struggles as a learning experience to get back on track in 2025.

“I didn’t play well last year and there’s no excuses for that,” Goldschmidt said. “That was on me, but hopefully looking back, there was a lot of things I learned, I know there is a lot of things that I did wrong in that first half that got exposed and I just wasn’t hitting pitches that most of my career I was able to connect on.

“It was a year where I didn’t perform my best at all, and like I said, no excuses, but I think learning from that and going through that process of trying to make those adjustments, and I got to a spot in the second half where I played better, and I think I can still play at a really, really high level. … I’m a pretty simple hitter, and I just wasn’t consistently doing that last year.”

He added later: “The feeling was like ‘Man, I’m better than this.’ That was kind of my feeling last year, but you’ve got to go out and prove it. If you don’t perform, than you’re not going to be playing.”

Having played his entire career in the NL, Goldschmidt has a very limited sample size when it comes to playing at Yankee Stadium. And though he’s played just six career games there, Goldschmidt said that he’s “very excited to be part of the franchise and the history they have.”

“I’ve been pretty fortunate. I played with a lot of guys that have spent some time in New York with the Yankees, and I think that stuck out in this process when it started to become real and about time to make a decision,” Goldschmidt said. “As you’re trying to learn about different organizations, just thinking back, I don’t remember hearing a bad thing about the Yankees. Everyone, all the players that have played there spoke very highly of everyone in the organization and the city and the fan base. We know its such a passionate fan base, and that gets all the players excited and we want to go out there and play well and win and celebrate with them.”