Like BT when he opened his show hours before, Evan began Monday’s show by comparing the 2024 Yankees without Juan Soto to the 2022 Yankees, who were uber reliant on Aaron Judge to put up otherworldly numbers to pile up victories.
After watching the Yanks drop two out of three to the Dodgers with Soto on the bench, Evan believed he was watching the 2022 Bombers, who flatlined in the postseason as Judge wore down from the 62-home run chase.
But not only did the series in the Bronx show the overreliance on Judge when Soto is not in the lineup, it also showed Evan that the deficiencies elsewhere in the lineup are so much more prevalent when the Soto/Judge duo isn’t hitting back to back.
“Once you start to lose a game here or there, or you lose Juan Soto for a few days, it starts to make things that you already noticed even more noticeable,” Evan said.
“Anthony Rizzo has been a mess, to the point where Aaron Boone benched him the other day…when Juan Soto isn’t in the lineup, it exposes to you the other questions the Yankees have. Gleyber Torres has had a terrible contract year.”
Rizzo was benched for Sunday’s series finale, while Torres committed his league-leading error by a second baseman the night before. Evan says those issues are even more front and center now that the Yankees experienced life without Soto for a weekend.
“When Juan is out of the lineup, it reminds you,” Evan said. “Kind of puts a magnifying glass on some of the holes you already knew you had that become even bigger because you don’t have that second beast in the lineup.”