Paul Goldschmidt will return to St. Louis with the Yankees this weekend, but his availability against his former team remains in question.
The seven-time All-Star first baseman was unavailable in Wednesday’s loss to the Twins with what was termed a low-grade sprain of his right knee.
Goldschmidt spent five seasons with the Cardinals before signing a one-year deal with the Yankees last winter.
“I don’t need any extra motivation to try to heal. I’ll do everything I can,” Goldschmidt said after the game. “We want to go there and play well, and hopefully, I’ll get a chance to play there.”
Aaron Boone acknowledged that a stint on the injured list was possible, but the 37-year-old Goldschmidt pushed back on the assertion, saying he doesn’t believe it’s a “long-term thing.”
The Yankees have Ben Rice to play first base if Goldschmidt is sidelined, but they also could use Cody Bellinger there and play Jasson Domínguez in left field on the days Rice is used at catcher.
Austin Wells is mired in a 5-for-50 slump with one homer, three RBIs and an anemic .344 OPS over his past 15 games.
Bellinger has made two starts among six appearances at first base this season, and he’s manned the position in 343 games during his career.
With much made about Giancarlo Stanton playing three straight games in right field to allow Aaron Judge to serve as the designated hitter while he recovers from a right flexor strain, it’s been easy to overlook the veteran slugger’s recent ascension on baseball’s all-time home runs list.
Stanton’s 447-foot blast in Tuesday’s 9-1 win over the Twins was the 441st of his 16-year MLB career.
Stanton began the year in 51st place in MLB history, but despite missing more than two months to start the season with elbow issues, he already has moved up to 44th with 12 homers in his first 43 appearances in 2025. He has surpassed Cal Ripken Jr., Andruw Jones, Juan González, Andre Dawson, Paul Konerko and Jason Giambi to move one homer behind Dave Kingman for 43rd place.
“I’ve tried to remind him a couple of days, like, ‘Here comes Kingman. You got Jason, a big one the other day,’ ” Boone said. “I mean, they’re all big now, I guess.
“But I enjoy it. I find it pretty cool. And I think in his own way, I think he enjoys it a little bit, too.”
Next up after Kingman are Hall of Famers Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Bagwell at 449, with Carl Yastrzemski sitting in 40th place with 452 homers.
Among active players, Stanton is easily ahead of Mike Trout (398), with Yankees teammates Goldschmidt (372) and Judge (353) ranking third and seventh, respectively. The latter went deep for the first time since returning from the injured list Tuesday night against Minnesota.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
