The St. Louis Cardinals have officially acquired All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks. In return the D-Backs will be receiving Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly, minor league infielder Andy Young and round B draft pick compensation in the 2019 draft.
After three years of searching the John Mozeliak has found the middle of the order bat the Cards have been missing. Goldschmidt has been a perennial All-Star and MVP candidate over the past six seasons.
In 2018, Goldy slashed .290/.389/.533 with 33 home runs, 35 doubles and 83 RBI. He is exactly the type of power presence that has been missing from the St. Louis lineup since Matt Holliday’s injuries. For his career, the big first baseman has hit .297 with an OPS of .930. He’s made six All-Star appearances, won four Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves and has finished in the top three voting for the NL MVP three times. Two other times he finished sixth and eleventh.
The Diamondbacks didn’t get fleeced on this deal by any means. There’s definitely more uncertainty in what they got in return for Goldy, but there’s also a lot of talent.
Luke Weaver had a down 2018 season but was very good the previous season, going 7-2 with a 3.88 ERA and 3.17 FIP. Overall he probably won’t ever be an Ace for Arizona, but he profiles nicely as a two or three guy in a good rotation. He was once touted as the top pitching prospect in the Cardinals system, though he had recently been surpassed. However, at just 24 he is still developing as a pitcher.
Carson Kelly is another very talented young prospect. At one point he was viewed as the top catching prospect in all of baseball. Unfortunately, he hasn’t proven anything at the big league level yet, though he hasn’t seen much playing time behind Yadier Molina. If he gets the opportunity his full potential could be realized with the D-Backs.
Young has yet to reach any level higher than Double-A. He is a 24-year-old, right-handed hitting infielder. This year in the Arizona Fall League he hit .301 with three homers, 15 RBI and an OPS of .936. Young has good power potential but likely had no room to advance in the Cardinals system.
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