Paul Goldschmidt’s contract with the Yankees (source)

Decorated first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has agreed to 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 YES Network’s Jack Curry.

For the first time in his illustrious career, Goldschmidt was on the open market this offseason. He was traded from 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 hard-hitting first baseman’s performance at the plate has declined to the point where he was a below-average hitter in 1924 (98 OPS+). In the lowest-performing offensive season of his career, he hit .245/.302/.414 with 22 home runs.

Whether Goldschmidt can bounce back in his age-37 season remains to be seen, but he has enjoyed a resurgence after a 2019 season in which he had his lowest OPS (.821) since his rookie year. He looked much more like himself in the pandemic-shortened 2020 and 2021 seasons before reaching a new level in 2022.