The St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to terms of a 5-year, $130 million contract extension with first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Heading into the 2019 season, it was suspected that the St. Louis Cardinals would lock down Goldschmidt after they acquired him in the offseason. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the two sides being close on the extension.
#STLCards close on an extension with 1B Paul Goldschmidt, sources tell The Athletic. Deal will be for at least five years and at least $110M.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 21, 2019
Last fall, the Cardinals acquired Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Luke Weaver and Carson Kelly heading to Arizona. Goldschmidt is on a $17.9 million qualifying offer for the 2019 season with the Cardinals. Goldschmidt is coming off of a 2018 season where he slashed .290/.389/.533 with 33 homers and 83 RBI’s for the Cardinals.
Goldschmidt has fallen in love with his new franchise, there was never any concern that the Cardinals would not be staying with the Cardinals after he has expressed a ton of interest in an extension. The six-time all-star provides the Cardinals with a huge boost in the lineup to supplement the incredible bat of Matt Carpenter and Marcell Ozuna. Coming into this year, it was noted that Goldschmidt was one of the most underpaid players in the game and he finally got the money to swing his way.
At the age of 31, Goldschmidt is raking in more money than outfielder JD Martinez got when he was 30 on his contract with the Boston Red Sox. This was a great move for the Cardinals to lock down this talent on a team that is hoping to contend in a division that is going to be a dog fight for the postseason berth.
