GOLDY’S OPPORTUNITY

Diamondbacks’ Goldschmidt pursues a power resurgence.

On a roster filled last season with underperformers, slugger Paul Goldschmidt’s offensive dropoff barely registered. He still was one of the Diamondbacks’ more productive players, still rated among the better hitters in baseball.

But Goldschmidt did not see it that way last year. And he does not see it that way now. He believes he wasn’t good enough.

“It’s on me,” Goldschmidt said. “I didn’t go out there and perform how I believe I’m capable of. There’s not really any excuses behind it. I can’t try harder; I gave it my effort. It just wasn’t as good as I’d like to. Hopefully, this year will be better.”

More than anything, it was Goldschmidt’s power production that decreased last year, but there was a positive development on Friday, when he launched his first home run of the Cactus League, a two-run shot to the opposite field off Dodgers right-hander Brandon McCarthy.

“When he starts to lock it in to the right side and hit balls as hard as he did, he’s in a really, really good spot,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “Hard for me to believe that he drove a ball that far and that hard, it looked like, through a pretty stiff wind. But as I was told after he hit the ball that he’ll do things like that all year long and I’m pretty excited about that.”

Had Goldschmidt not reached such elite levels in previous years, his numbers from 2016 would have looked perfectly fine. His combined slugging percentage from the past three years was .556, the third-best mark in baseball. Last year, he slugged just .489, ranking 45th in the majors.

He hit 36 homers in 2013 and 33 in 2015 and was on pace for 28 in 2014 before suffering a season-ending hand injury. He hit just 24 last year.

“Even if you go and have an amazing year, the greatest year ever, you’re always going to be looking for ways to improve – or at least I am,” Goldschmidt said. “That’s what it comes down to. I’m not like, oh, the numbers were this and they should have been this. Just go back and need to keep working hard. Last year is over.”

So what happened to Goldschmidt’s