Goldschmidt agrees to join Yankees on 1-year deal (source)

Decorated first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has agreed on a one-year, $12.5 million deal with the Yankees, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Saturday. The team has not confirmed the deal, which was first reported by the YES Network's Jack Curry.

For the first time in his illustrious career, Goldschmidt was on the open market this offseason. He was traded by the D-backs, the team that drafted him and with whom he played the first seven seasons of his career, to the Cardinals in December 2018 and signed a contract extension with St. Louis shortly thereafter.

Goldschmidt was the NL MVP in 2022, when he posted a .981 OPS with 35 home runs and earned his seventh All-Star selection. But since then, the slugging first baseman’s production at the plate has declined to the point where he was a below-average hitter in ’24 (98 OPS+). In the lowest-output offensive season of his career, he hit .245/.302/.414 with 22 homers.

Whether Goldschmidt can rebound in his age-37 season remains to be seen, but he did have a resurgence following a 2019 campaign during which he had his lowest OPS (.821) since his rookie year. He looked much more like himself at the plate in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and then in ’21 before taking it to another level in ’22.

The addition of Goldschmidt will give the Yanks a lineup featuring four MVPs, along with Aaron Judge (twice), Giancarlo Stanton (once) and the recently acquired Cody Bellinger (once). The 2025 Yankees will be the seventh team to have four MVP winners appear in a single season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.