At the All-Star Game in Los Angeles in 2022, Aaron Judge sent Yankee fans into a panic when he was asked, on the spot, what he would say to a young boy that was beside himself at the idea that Judge could take off the pinstripes for good at the end of the season.
“Jacob, buddy, we got a lot of great Yankees on this team,” Judge said. “A lot of great Yankees who will be here a long time. Don’t be upset. Hopefully you’ll be a Judge fan for life.”
Quickly, speculation ran through social media that Judge was insinuating that his time in pinstripes would come to an end, and perhaps the inability to agree to a contract extension before the start of the season, and Brian Cashman subsequently making the Yankees’ extension offer public, was enough to push the lifelong Yankee out the door.
There were more wild ups and downs from that moment in July through the Winter Meetings that year. Yankee fans rejoiced at the sight of Judge kissing the interlocking NY on his jersey after going deep in the ALDS, then lamented the thought that those same fans booing Judge in the postseason would send him packing. In the end, despite incorrect reports and visits with San Diego, Judge wound up back in the Bronx on a $360 million deal and the label as the first Yankee captain since Derek Jeter.
With that in mind, why has so much weight been put on selective words that Juan Soto spoke at Wednesday’s introductory press conference?
Fans went into speculation mode all over again when Soto finished a sentence with “while I’m there” when referring to learning from Judge and playing alongside him in 2024, the final year before he hits free agency. Does Soto already know that New York isn’t where he wants to be long term? Or are the Yanks not the New York team he prefers to call home for the rest of his career?
Soto’s comments as of now mean exactly what Judge’s comments meant to young Jacob in the summer of 2022: absolutely nothing.
If Soto has held an added affinity for the Yankees because of the family and friends he has living in the New York area, or because he has routinely mashed home runs in his infrequent visits to the Bronx in the past, he wasn’t showing his hand via Zoom on Wednesday. He would be wise not to. Soto’s free agency next year will likely be the only time he goes through that process, so it will be his only chance to earn the highest salary possible before retirement. Knowing that anything and everything is used for and against each side when at the negotiating table, why would Soto want Hal Steinbrenner and company to know that he bleeds Yankee blue, if that is the case?
Soto could also be taking pages right out of the Judge free agency handbook, which the Yankee captain played to perfection a year ago. Judge remained stoic and guarded throughout his time as a free agent, giving away nothing as to which way he could be leaning towards. In the end, he signed where he wanted to be all along, but allowing other teams to get into the mix certainly earned him more money in what could be the last contract he signs before calling it a career.
Soto will take the year to gauge what it is like to be a Yankee, and in all likelihood, will continue the trend of Scott Boras clients waiting for free agency to drive up the price. It’s good business, especially for a star who will likely sign the richest contract in MLB history by a player not named Shohei Ohtani. If Soto falls in love with the Yankee experience and the teammates around him, he will certainly weigh that at the end of the year, and let his agent know where he wants to end up. If that is the case, and the Yankees come correct with an offer (not one filled with deferrals like the one the Nationals offered him years ago), he will be a Yankee for more than a decade to come.
Until then, Yankee fans will live and die with every comment or breadcrumb that Soto leaves along the way, much like they did with Judge in 2022. That would mean they simply haven’t learned their lesson. Soto, in the effort of maintaining an upper hand in future negotiations, won’t tip his hand. That doesn’t mean he has already shut down the idea of calling the Bronx his home.
So, when it comes to Soto’s comments on Wednesday, and likely any others that he makes before the end of the season, don’t read too much into them.
