What can Yankees expect out of Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger in 2025?

TAMPA, Fla. — Back when Aaron Boone worked for ESPN, he became well acquainted with his new first baseman while living in the same Arizona neighborhood.

“When he was first having kids and my kids were little rugrats running around the park, Paul Goldschmidt, [then] with the Diamondbacks, used to step out and play a little bit with them,” a smiling Boone said Tuesday.

That was about 10 years ago, when Goldschmidt would have been 27 years old and working on the third of six consecutive All-Star seasons. Now 37, he has reconnected with Boone after signing a one-year, $12.5 million contract with the Yankees in December.

No longer in his prime, Goldschmidt is coming off the worst season of his career in St. Louis. While he won his only MVP award in 2022, some end-of-season mechanical issues in 2023 bled into 2024. That resulted in career-worsts across his slash line (.245/.302/.414), as well his wRC+ (100), last year.

“The truth was I just didn’t play well for over a year and a good part of last year,” said Goldschmidt, who totaled 22 homers and 65 RBIs over 154 games in 2024. “It was unfortunate. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. I was doing everything I could, took a ton of swings and all that. But this game’s hard, the pitchers are good, and if you get off by a little bit, it can go downhill. So hopefully it will be a good thing in my career, getting to learn from that.”

The silver lining in Goldschmidt’s last campaign: he made some mechanical and mental adjustments, which led to a .271 average and .799 OPS in the second half.

Now he and the Yankees are hoping that those tweaks lead to a bounce-back season.

“He’s in impeccable shape,” Boone said. “He’s a baseball gym rat. He’s out there working on different things in the field right now, little things that we think can help him. So he drinks up baseball. He really wants to be coached, wants to be pushed, wants to learn little things that he can apply to his game.

“I’m really excited about him.”

The plan is for the right-handed Goldschmidt to be the Yankees’ everyday first baseman. He’s played in at least 151 games every year since 2015 — excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — making him one of the more dependable players in the game from a health perspective.

But as Father Time gets hold of Goldschmidt, could the Yankees lessen his workload in order to maximize whatever production his bat has left?

Boone said, “We’ll see.”

“I’m not going to go in with that necessarily,” the manager continued. “I’ll certainly talk through that with him as we go. But I’m not married to anything right now.”

Should the Yankees decide to spell Goldschmidt here and there, Cody Bellinger is one alternative option at first. However, Boone plans on using the 29-year-old as his everyday center fielder.

The Yankees acquired Bellinger and $5 million from the Cubs for Cody Poteet in December. The deal marked a homecoming of sorts, as Bellinger used to tag along when his father, Clay, played for the Yankees from 1999-2001.

Thanks to his parents’ camcorder, Bellinger has plenty of memories of following the Bombers around and living in New York. He also has a large collection of his dad’s Yankees gear, though he’s now settling into his own pinstripes.

Bellinger burst onto the scene in 2017, winning Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers before taking home his own MVP trophy after hitting a career-high 47 homers in 2019. However, Bellinger went on to endure numerous injuries and down years before being non-tendered by Los Angeles after the 2022 season.

He spent the past two seasons with the Cubs, slashing .286/.340/.475 with 44 homers, 175 RBI and a 122 wRC+. Bellinger had a stronger season in 2023, but he was solid in 2024, hitting .266/.325/.426 with 18 homers, 78 RBIs and a 109 wRC+.

With the benefit of experiencing numerous highs and lows, Boone is hoping Bellinger can “make for some magic” this season.

“This is a guy in the prime of his career,” Boone said. “He’s been through a lot already in his career, made some nice adjustments, an outstanding two-way player. Brings a ton of defensive value, defensive versatility, really good baserunner.

“I’m confident that he’s going to elevate our club.”

While Bellinger is no longer the power hitter he once was, Boone also believes that Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch will benefit the newcomer’s left-handed swing.

Bellinger has pulled the ball at a 45% clip throughout his career, and he’s hit fly balls 44.3% of the time. Bellinger’s pull rate was 42.6% in 2024, his lowest since his rookie year, but his fly-ball rate was 46.1%.

With an easy target to shoot for in the Bronx, don’t be surprised if Bellinger makes a concerted effort to increase his Pull%.

“When he was hitting a ton of home runs and had a different profile and was MVP, he pulled the ball in the air,” Boone said. “As he’s got more contact-oriented, gone through some injury stuff, that’s still his profile. He pulls the ball in the air, which is going to serve him well in our ballpark. So we think that’s going to play up.”

Despite Goldschmidt’s age and poor 2024 and Bellinger’s injury-related inconsistencies, the Yankees are clearly bullish on the duo as they plot a Juan Soto-less lineup.

Team owner Hal Steinbrenner recently remarked that the two could make up for a “good deal” of Soto’s offense after the Mets’ new superstar enjoyed a career year with the Yankees in 2024, but that certainly won’t be easy.

ZiPS, a popular player projection model found on FanGraphs, predicts Goldschmidt will hit .250/.325/.437 with 23 homers, 81 RBIs, a 116 wRC+ and 2.2 WAR in 2025.

Bellinger is predicted to slash .264/.322/.442 with 20 homers, 81 RBIs, a 113 wRC+ and 3.0 WAR.

For comparison, Soto is projected to hit .277/.426/.521 with 33 homers, 100 RBIs, a 166 wRC+ and 6.5 WAR in his first season with the Mets.

“What he provided was very special,” Boone said of Soto, but the skipper added, “There’s a lot of ways to build an outstanding team.”

Fair or not, Bellinger and Goldschmidt are being looked at as Soto’s replacements, at least in terms of offensive production. However, the duo is trying to avoid such comparisons.

Rather, they’re just focused on their own games as the Yankees attempt to turn back the clock.

“For me and Paul, it’s not necessarily replacing anybody, but coming in and performing to our best capability,” Bellinger said. “We know what our best capability is. If we reach those levels, then I think that it could be fun.”