ST. LOUIS — The first nine pitches Paul Goldschmidt saw in the month of June, on a beautiful afternoon in the shadow of the Gateway Arch, were outside of the strike zone. Hard to blame the Padres for taking that approach, even with Yu Darvish on the mound, considering the month of May put together by the Cardinals’ first baseman.
You might not have noticed because Goldschmidt has a way of silently cruising along under the radar — just the way he likes it — but he reached base safely in every game he played in May, and his hitting streak was up to 22 games entering that Wednesday afternoon contest. His streak of reaching base safely via a hit or walk runs all the way back to April 22, and was extended to 37 games when Darvish walked him in the first inning.
Yep, baseball’s most under-appreciated superstar is at it again.
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“He’s just doing everything he typically does well, but at the highest level I’ve seen,” Cardinals infielder Tommy Edman told Sporing News after the game. “I feel like the thing with Goldy is how consistent he is from at-bat to at-bat, and he’s just not giving any at-bats away right now. He’s just competing and sticking to his plan.”
Goldschmidt finally saw a strike in his third plate appearance of the game against Darvish, and then finally got one he liked, a 2-2 offering in the sixth inning that caught too much of the heart of the plate, even for a 96-mph fastball. No surprise what Goldschmidt did with it.
“He laced it, didn’t he?” Nolan Arenado said with a grin after the game.
He did, indeed. His 107.5 mph rocket into left field was the hardest-hit ball of the game. Goldschmidt finished the game with a single and two walks. His third-inning double on Thursday in Chicago extended his hitting streak to 23 games and his on-base streak to 38. In his on-base streak, he’s produced a .405/.467/.737 slash line, good for a 1.204 OPS, with 11 homers, 16 doubles, 43 RBIs and 30 runs scored.
As a reporter, getting Goldschmidt to talk about himself is more challenging than a pitcher getting him to chase a baseball out of the zone. That’s why I decided to talk with Edman, who has been the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter during Goldschmidt’s streak — Goldschmidt bats second in the lineup — about what the first baseman has done.
“It leads to me scoring a lot of runs, which is great,” Edman said with a laugh. “Feels like any time I get on base with him up behind me, I end up scoring. It’s fun.”
And, of course, Arenado hits directly behind Goldschmidt. Arenado followed that rocket sixth-inning single with a home run that put the Cardinals up, 3-1, in a game they eventually won, 5-2.
“I have the best seat in the house,” Arenado said, “watching him on-deck.”
For the season, Goldschmidt leads the NL in batting average (.349), on-base percentage (.423) and slugging percentage (.619). Which means, obviously, he’s tops in OPS (1.042), too. He’s also tops in wOBA (.447) and wRC+ (192). He’s third in FanGraphs’ WAR (2.7) and third in the NL by the Baseball-Reference calculation (2.9).
“He’s just been unbelievable. He’s in such control, and it’s against good pitchers. It’s been amazing to watch him,” Arenado said. “He’s one of the best in the game. He just doesn’t really get a lot of credit, maybe because, I dunno, he’s a quiet dude and he keeps to himself, but he’s one of the best players in the game. And he’s been one of the best players in the game since he was called up.”
Let’s take a look at that. Goldschmidt, who’s in his Age 34 season, made his debut in 2011 and played his first full season in 2012.
He’s yet to win an MVP award, but he finished second in the NL MVP voting with the Diamondbacks in 2013 and has received at least one vote on the MVP ballot every year since then, except for 2014. He finished second again in 2015, third in 2017 and sixth in both 2018 and 2021. Currently, he’s third in the NL MVP odds, though you do have to wonder whether a player leading the league in all three slash categories would be considered the MVP favorite if he was playing in a bigger market, right?
But that’s a different conversation. There are 179 players with at least 3,000 plate appearances since 2012; here’s where Goldschmidt (who has 6,339) ranks in these categories.
OPS: Third, .918 (Mike Trout leads, at 1.011)
On-base percentage: Third, .392 (Trout leads, .421)
Slugging percentage: Sixth (tied), .426 (Trout leads, .590)
bWAR: Second, 53.2 (Trout leads, 78.4)
fWAR: Third, 48.9 (Trout leads, 78.1)
wOBA: Third, .388 (Trout leads, .423)
WPA: Second, 40.1 (Trout leads, 45.9)
Extra-base hits: First, 653 (Trout is second, at 643)
RBI: First, 944 (Nelson Cruz is second, at 942)
It’s a brilliant stretch of baseball.
“His mental approach to the game is unparalleled,” Edman said. “I haven’t seen anyone who is as good as him at approaching it from the mental side, knowing what he needs to do to be good, to know what his swings feel like and know how to correct it immediately. It’s cool being able to learn from someone who’s done so much in this game.”
And if he keeps this up, maybe Goldschmidt will be able to add “win an MVP” to the list of things he’s done in this game.
