Like the rest of the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense, Paul Goldschmidt was off in 2019
Paul Goldschmidt’s results in his first season with the St. Louis Cardinals precisely reflect the way he described his swing throughout the season: “maybe a little off.”
The margins are awfully thin.
It’s not like Goldschmidt had a bad year, after all. He led the Cardinals with 34 home runs and 97 RBI. His .821 on base plus slugging percentage led all St. Louis hitters save for Tommy Edman, who had more than 300 fewer plate appearances. He was a finalist for the National League Gold Glove at first base and was, by OPS+, 13% better than a league average hitter.
And yet, by his standards, it was surely a let down.
Goldschmidt posted his lowest OPS and worst OPS+ in any full season. He posted his lowest walk total since 2014. He didn’t make the All-Star team. He was a positive, productive player, but he wasn’t quite Paul Goldschmidt.
“I was just too inconsistent,” Goldschmidt said Friday. “There were times I was good and times I wasn’t, and I think I just tried to find (it), get back to being consistent. That’s really what I always tried to do and I just didn’t do a good job.”
It’s impossible to speak to Goldschmidt and not notice the negative self-assessment which paints his view of 2019. Even when asked specifically about the positives of his season, Goldschmidt replied, “if you’re doing good, I don’t know if necessarily you’re learning about your swing or what you’re doing or how they’re attacking you.”
The drive for improvement is unmistakable. And in this season, the first of the franchise-record five year, $130 million extension he signed during last year’s spring training, the pressure will inevitably be ratcheted up, either externally or by Goldschmidt himself.
“The transition was way smoother than I thought, especially on the field,” Goldschmidt said. “Once you got on the lines, everything was pretty similar.”
“I just didn’t play my best, and hopefully, like every year, go out there and try to play better and learn from last year and just play to the best of my ability this year.”
The 2020 season isn’t off to an idyllic start. Goldschmidt has been somewhat slowed early in camp by a sore right elbow which has limited some of his throws on the infield. The injury isn’t considered serious, and Goldschmidt was in the lineup as the designated hitter for the Grapefruit League opener at Roger Dean Stadium against the New York Mets on Saturday. He’s expected to be penciled into the same spot on Monday against the Miami Marlins.
“It’s fine,” Goldschmidt cautioned, “but I think just being smart, trying to limit the throws right now to make sure the soreness is gone and doesn’t turn into something that’s serious.”
Goldschmidt said the issue in his elbow hasn’t affected his spring hitting work at all. For now, it’s a minor speed bump on what the Cardinals hope (need) is Goldschmidt’s road back toward his career averages at the plate.
“It’s good to get back out there and replicate as much game speed as you can,” he said. “You want to get back into what your routine is. You want to have good at bats.”
That routine is part of what eluded Goldschmidt in his frustrating 2019 season. He described a search for a swing that never quite bore fruit. He was always a little off, out of balance, misfiring on his timing. Several pieces were working independently, but the desired synergy proved elusive.
“It wasn’t like anything I was like, ‘oh my gosh, what happened?’ Goldschmidt explained. “It was just, ‘OK, that was maybe a little off here,’ and then maybe I made an adjustment with my hands and then the lower half was off. I just was never able, in my opinion, to ever sync my swing up the way I wanted to.”
Goldschmidt’s swing makes a fine avatar for the totality of the Cardinals’ offensive performance in 2019.
Parts would work when other parts would not. The sum of those parts seemed to be less than would be expected from the constituent pieces. A yearlong search for a fix added not with a thump but a whimper as the Washington Nationals swept the Cardinals from the National League Championship Series.
Goldschmidt was 1-for-16 in that series with 9 strikeouts. At the time, he criticized himself harshly. It would be difficult to say the criticism wasn’t deserved.
Now, at the dawn of the exhibition season and with plenty of runway ahead for the 2020 campaign, Goldschmidt has the opportunity to seize on what was missing — consistency, seemingly his watchword.
“You gotta do the job, whatever you’re gonna do,” Goldschmidt said. “If you’re hitting the fastball they’re gonna throw you (breaking balls). It’s just gonna be back and forth. If they’re throwing offspeed and I’m not hitting it they’re gonna keep doing it.
“My focus wasn’t on what they were doing. It was more on me, and if I can take care of what I need to do, there’s gonna be small adjustments. I think it has to start with me and just being consistent.”
