Popular Brewers free agent target has caught the eye of the Yankees this offseason

The Milwaukee Brewers are once again in the midst of an offseason where they attempt to keep their contention window alive by adding and subtracting all at once. Already this winter we've seen the club non-tender a few pieces from the 2024 roster and trade away All-Star closer Devin Williams.

Williams was moved to the New York Yankees for a two-player package that could provide the Brewers with short- and long-term assistance, so it's understandable why this deal needed to go down. After all, the right-hander was simply becoming too expensive to be kept around, and if the Brewers knew they weren't going to retain him once he hits free agency, why bother?

So Williams is a Yankee, and the Brewers-Yankees connections are not stopping there. Paul Goldschmidt, a popular target for the Brewers on this offseason's rumor mill, is reportedly drawing interest from those very same Yankees. The club is without a clear-cut first baseman after cutting ties with Anthony Rizzo and receiving poor production from rookie Ben Rice this past season.

AL East juggernaut's Paul Goldschmidt interest should be music to Brewers fans' ears

At this point in his career, Goldschmidt is about as big of a wild-card as they come. The future Hall of Famer is only two years removed from the first MVP Award of his long and prosperous career, but his fall-off since then has been dramatic.

In fact, this past season was the first one in his 14-year career that he finished with a below-average stat line. His 98 OPS+ put him two percent below league-average at the dish, despite the fact that he recorded 22 home runs and 65 RBI while playing in 154 games.

Goldschmidt makes sense on the Brewers to an extent, but only if they're able to move Rhys Hoskins' contract off the books, which is far from a sure thing. With the amount of risk that comes with even a single-year pact for Goldschmidt, it will probably be for the best to see him land elsewhere.

In the eyes of some Brewers fans, the Yankees just stole their club's favorite closer, so perhaps the Yanks can offset their strong offseason - that also includes a fleecing of the Cubs in the Cody Bellinger trade - by handicapping themselves with a Goldschmidt contract. Either way, if the Brewers are faced with a straight yes or no on whether or not they need Goldschmidt, the answer is still a resounding "no."

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