Texas State Professional Athletes

Two Texas State alumni are deep in the late-season grind, and the week of Aug. 30–Sept. 5 told very different stories about where each one stands.

Goldschmidt Gives the Yankees Exactly What They Need

Paul Goldschmidt is doing what Paul Goldschmidt does — quietly, consistently, and at exactly the right time of year. The first baseman put together one of his best stretches of the season this week, headlined by a three-hit, one-homer, three-RBI performance against the Red Sox on Aug. 30, part of a Yankees romp that started with a clutch sequence of at-bats in the fifth inning. He followed that up with two hits against the Angels on Sept. 3 and added another hit and an RBI against the Padres on Sept. 5, closing out the week hitting .252.

The week wasn't without a wrinkle — Goldschmidt sat out one game against the Angels, prompting teammate Jazz Chisholm Jr. to step into the production gap with a three-hit, one-homer performance. Chisholm made a point of crediting the lineup depth, but the subtext was clear: when Goldschmidt is out, someone has to fill a big hole. The good news for New York is that he was back in the lineup shortly after, and his numbers are trending in the right direction at the most important time of the calendar.

For a Yankees club pushing for postseason positioning, Goldschmidt's veteran presence and contact reliability are exactly the kind of complementary production that holds a lineup together when bigger names cool off.

Finnegan's ERA Rollercoaster Is Raising Real Questions

Kyle Finnegan's week was a study in volatility — and it's amplifying concerns about a contract that was already drawing scrutiny.

The Tigers' $19 million reliever had a disastrous outing on Sept. 1 against the Twins, surrendering five earned runs in just one-third of an inning. The meltdown ballooned his ERA to 4.07 and sharpened questions about whether Detroit can count on him down the stretch. Considering the investment attached to his deal, one bad month had already become a problem. A five-run collapse turned it into a bigger one.

To his credit, Finnegan bounced back. He worked two clean innings against the Twins on Sept. 2 with three strikeouts, and followed that with a solid inning against the Guardians on Sept. 5, bringing his ERA back down to 3.86 by week's end. The rebound was encouraging, but the whiplash is precisely the issue — Detroit needs reliability out of its late-game arms, not a week-to-week guessing game.

The Tigers also announced personal news involving Finnegan ahead of their series against Cleveland, though the details were unrelated to on-field performance.

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The contrast between Goldschmidt and Finnegan this week captures the tension of late September baseball perfectly: one Bobcat alumni steadying a contender, another fighting to prove his price tag is justified. Both situations are worth watching as the regular season enters its final weeks.

Paul Goldschmidt hadn't been seeing much action lately, but when the New York Yankees needed a hero in a pivotal AL East series opener, the Texas State alum made his moment count.

Goldschmidt — a first baseman who had done plenty of watching from the bench in recent weeks — stepped into the lineup on Friday night at Fenway Park and delivered the only run of the game, launching a solo home run off Patrick Sandoval in the third inning to lift the Yankees over the Boston Red Sox, 1-0. It was the kind of clutch performance that cuts right through a resume of idle days: one swing, one run, one win.

The game was a masterclass in pitching and opportunism. Cam Schlittler struck out eight across 5.2 shutout innings, continuing his personal dominance of the Red Sox, while Cody Bellinger added a highlight-reel moment of his own — gunning down the potential tying run at the plate to end the seventh inning and preserve the shutout. But the decisive blow belonged to Goldschmidt, whose bat carried the Bobcat banner into a marquee rivalry moment. His average sits at .247 on the season, a figure that doesn't fully capture the weight of Friday's contribution.

The win opened a critical four-game set between the Yankees and Red Sox with New York firmly in control of the narrative.

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Finnegan Grinding in the Bullpen

Elsewhere in the league, Kyle Finnegan continued his workmanlike stretch for the Detroit Tigers. The right-hander logged a scoreless inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, Aug. 26, keeping his ERA at 3.31. Earlier in the week, he took the mound against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, Aug. 23, tossing another inning — this time allowing one earned run while punching out a batter, bumping his ERA slightly to 3.38. Finnegan remains a dependable late-inning arm for a Tigers squad navigating a packed stretch of games, even if the stat line won't make headlines the way a solo shot in the Bronx rivalry will.

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Texas State's MLB footprint is quiet but real. Goldschmidt remains the marquee name — a veteran presence on one of baseball's biggest stages, still capable of delivering when it matters most. That Friday night homer wasn't just a line in a box score. In a 1-0 game between division rivals with playoff implications simmering, it was everything.

The Bobcat in the Bronx

Paul Goldschmidt may be playing out the final chapter of his career in New York, but the Texas State alum isn't going quietly. The Yankees first baseman turned in one of the week's stranger highlights — a zero-pitch at-bat that nonetheless proved pivotal in New York's win over the Blue Jays on Friday, Aug. 21.

The sequence, unusual enough to qualify as genuinely bizarre even by baseball's elastic standards, resulted in Goldschmidt reaching base and ultimately contributing to the go-ahead run. It's the kind of moment that doesn't show up cleanly in a box score — Goldschmidt was credited with a hit on the night and is batting .247 on the season — but it underscored the veteran's instincts and situational awareness that have defined a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

According to FanSided, Goldschmidt is among a small group of Yankees believed to be playing their final seasons in pinstripes, lending a quiet poignancy to every contribution he makes down the stretch. The first baseman has spent the better part of two decades as one of the NL's most feared bats, most of it in Arizona before his stint in St. Louis and now New York. Whether or not this is truly his swan song, he's not coasting: he also drew a walk in the Aug. 16 series opener against Toronto, showing patience at the plate that younger hitters spend careers trying to learn.

Finnegan Keeps Rolling in Detroit

Across the league, fellow Bobcat Kyle Finnegan has quietly put together a solid stretch for the Tigers out of the bullpen. The right-hander worked 1.0 inning against the Pirates on Wednesday, Aug. 19, punching out one batter, then followed that with another appearance Monday, Aug. 17 — logging 0.2 innings with another strikeout. His ERA sits at 3.27 after the week's work, a number that reflects a reliever who has been a reliable arm in a Tigers bullpen navigating the stretch run.

Finnegan doesn't generate the headlines of a Goldschmidt, but his durability and ability to eat late-inning outs on back-to-back days is exactly the kind of quiet contribution contending teams lean on come August.

The Bottom Line

Texas State's most prominent MLB alumni made their marks in different ways this week — one through a moment strange enough to go viral, the other through the unsexy grind of bullpen innings. Both are doing exactly what you'd want from a program's representatives at the highest level: competing, producing, and staying on the field when it matters most.

With Goldschmidt potentially winding down one of the more decorated careers any Bobcat has produced in professional baseball, every start, every walk, every zero-pitch at-bat carries a little extra weight. San Marcos should be watching closely.