Since making his major league debut on August 1st, 2011, Paul Goldschmidt has quickly established himself as one of the premiere hitters in the National League. Even with an injury-shortened 2014 campaign, Goldschmidt has made a meteoric rise up the Arizona Diamondbacks' all-time franchise batting marks for home runs, RBIs, and hits. Given the fact that he seems to be willing to accept team-friendly contracts, Arizona fans expect him to be a Diamondback for years to come.
While the lesser known Greg Colbrunn holds the Diamondbacks' team record for batting average at .310, virtually all other major team batting records belong to long-time Diamondback and fan favorite Luis Gonzalez (if you're curious, Luis Gonzalez is in second place at .298). Gonzo will no doubt permanently hold a special place in the hearts of Arizona baseball fans for his bloop, series-clinching walk-off single off Mariano Rivera in game seven of the 2001 World Series, but the Goldschmidt taking the crown for many team batting records seems nearly inevitable.
As rapidly as Goldschmidt has climbed the team leaderboards, the only question remaining is when can we expect him to surpass Gonzalez for these team batting records?
Hits
Perhaps Gonzalez's firmest grasp on a Diamondback team record are his hits while with the team from 1999-2006. Amassing 1,337 hits during this period, Gonzalez has a nearly 500 hit lead over the next closest player on the list, Steve Finley, in second place with 847 hits with the team.
At the time this is being written, Goldschmidt sits at 7th place on the Diamondbacks all-time hits list with 737. However, with Miguel Montero in 3rd place at 795 hits, Paul Goldschmidt will more than likely climb up several spots this season alone. But how long until he could reach Gonzalez's team record?
Goldschmidt has averaged 174 hits per 162 games played, but has averaged 143 games played since his first full season in 2012 (this includes his injury-shortened 2014 season). Adjusting his 162-game hits average, at his current production, we can expect him to amass about 153 hits per season. Given that he is currently 600 hits from Gonzo's record, we would expect him to reach the team hits record sometime in 2020. Even by 2020 Goldschmidt would be just 32 years old, so still in the latter part of his prime.
RBIs
With 453 RBIs, Paul Goldschmidt is already 3rd on the Diamondbacks all-time RBI list, and will likely pass Steve Finley, at 479 RBIs, later this year. Luis Gonzalez finished his time in Arizona with 774 RBIs, putting Goldy 321 RBIs away. Using the same assumption of Goldschmidt playing 143 games per year with a 162-game average of 107 RBIs, we would expect Goldschmidt to surpass Gonzalez's all-time Diamondback RBI record in about three-an-a-half seasons (in 2019 or 2020).
Homeruns
Despite Luis Gonzalez's monster 2001 season where he hit 57 dingers, he finished his Diamondbacks career with a comparatively modest 224 home runs. Goldschmidt current sits at 128 round-trippers, putting him less than one hundred from the franchise record. Goldy has averaged 30 home runs per 162 games in his young career, and when adjusted for his average of 143 games per season, we could expect him to continue to hit 26 per year (by no means an unreasonable feat). This would mean Goldschmidt might eclipse Gonzo in 3.6 seasons (once again, placing his record-reaching season in either 2019 or 2020).
While Diamondback fans are certainly more focused on rebuilding their team and making post-season runs in the coming years, we hope more than anything that Goldschmidt can stay healthy and continue to play at the level that he has thus far. If he does, we might see some franchise-record-breaking in the next three or four years.