Inseparable Goldy and Arenado push each other to improve

JUPITER, Fla. — Nolan Arenado’s infatuation with Paul Goldschmidt’s expertise as a baseball participant dates to 2009 after they had been rookies in several organizations within the Pioneer League, and it percolated many instances via the years after they confronted off as NL West rivals.

However, it wasn’t till 2017, after they had been teammates for Team USA within the World Baseball Classic that Arenado’s fascination with Goldschmidt morphed into a unique type of admiration. Every morning, they talked hitting between breakfast bites and analyzed one another’s swings with the bat Arenado stored shut by at night time. That discuss reaffirmed what Arenado considered Goldschmidt from the primary time he noticed him slug 18 homers in rookie ball years earlier.

“Smartest baseball player I’ve ever played with,” Arenado mentioned. “Not just on the field, but off it, too.”

Cardinals teammates the previous two seasons, Goldschmidt and Arenado are inseparable besides when they’re reverse one another at first and third base. Not solely do they hit again to again within the order, however they’re additionally often in the identical hitting teams. As one other set of eyes, they watch one another hit and supply immediate, trustworthy suggestions.

“He makes me so much better,” mentioned Goldschmidt, who sits subsequent to Arenado on the staff airplane and has the locker subsequent to his in Spring Training. “We think about baseball and hitting in similar ways. It’s helpful to have someone to talk with that thinks about it the same way, and I have that with Nolan.”

There are huge variations, after all, between Goldschmidt, 35, and Arenado, 31. While Goldschmidt is predominantly staid, Arenado burns sizzling and exhibits his feelings typically. Ultimately, it will get them to an analogous place. Last season, they had been the one teammates with at the very least 7.0 fWAR (Arenado had 7.3 and Goldschmidt had 7.1). Their 149 mixed extra-base hits had been second most by a duo behind Atlanta’s Austin Riley and Matt Olson. Their 218 mixed RBIs had been second most by a duo to Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor’s 238. Additionally, they had been the primary teammates with 30-plus house runs, 40-plus doubles and 100-plus RBIs since 2019 (Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers) and the primary National League teammates to do this since 2008, when the Cards duo of Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick completed the feat.

“It’s unique, but it’s not unique to the best,” Cards president of baseball operations John Mozeliak mentioned of the best way the staff’s two stars push each other. “When you’re a younger player in this camp and you’re getting to witness someone who won the MVP and someone who finished third, and they’re the hardest workers, most intentional and most driven, dang that’s a good thing to follow.”

One factor Arenado had a troublesome time following was when Goldschmidt referred to as him final offseason and mentioned he wished to have advance testing performed on his bats and swing to attempt to acquire one other edge. That was stunning to Arenado contemplating Goldschmidt had completed second within the NL MVP race in 2013 and ’15, third in ’17 and sixth in ’18 and ’21. Goldschmidt hit .330 with an OPS of 1.020 over the second half of that 2021 season, and he was nonetheless scratching and clawing for tactics to enhance. After he picked his jaw up off the ground, Arenado agreed to accompany his finest good friend for the swings evaluation.

“I was afraid for him to change anything,” Arenado mentioned. “I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t think you should be changing anything. If anyone should be changing something, it’s me.’ It shows he knows there’s another level you can get to, and he’s always pushing.”

That subsequent degree was Goldschmidt’s first MVP award. Not surprisingly, Arenado wasn’t far behind, ending two spots again within the voting. Arenado playfully ribbed his teammate that he might need been the MVP had Goldschmidt not “stolen” RBIs together with his off-the-charts manufacturing.

The first full staff exercises of Spring Training got here Monday, however Arenado and Goldschmidt have already been in Jupiter understanding facet by facet and speaking hitting for weeks. The seek for extra is one they undertake collectively because the motor that drives the Cardinals’ offense.

“The thing I appreciate most about Goldy is he’s always pushing to get better, and if he’s doing that, with all his accomplishments, there’s no reason I shouldn’t,” Arenado analyzed. “He pushes me to be a better player, and I’ve become better because I’ve been around him these last couple of years.”