TAMPA — At 37, Paul Goldschmidt is the oldest player on the Yankees.
But he may be one of their most durable, which is just one of the attributes the Yankees were banking on staying true when they signed the veteran first baseman to a one-year, $12.5 million contract in December.
Goldschmidt has played at least 150 games in each of the last nine seasons (not counting the COVID-shortened 2020) — a threshold no Yankees first baseman has reached since Mark Teixeira in 2011.
If the former NL MVP can build on the adjustments he made in the second half of last season, after a rough first half, he could give the Yankees the kind of production and consistency they have been missing at the position.
“He’s in impeccable shape, he’s that baseball gym rat,” manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday at Steinbrenner Field. “He’s out there working on different things in the field right now that are little things we think can help him even there. He drinks up baseball.
“He really wants to be coached, wants to be pushed, wants to learn little things he can apply to his game. He’s been a student of the game his entire career as well as being really…
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