A quick glance at the New York Yankees' roster does not immediately reveal a top-tier contender. There is plenty of talent, but the rotation is in shambles without Gerrit Cole, the bullpen is a ticking time bomb and the lineup is still awfully dependent on a certain power-hitting outfielder.
Thankfully, that power-hitting outfielder goes by the name of Aaron Judge, and he is almost single-handedly dragging the Yankees to some of these wins. Judge recorded three hits, including his seventh home run, in New York's 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. That keeps the Yankees a half-game ahead of Toronto in baseball's tightest division.
Meanwhile, there's a former Yankees outfielder in a new part of town, still trying to find his way. Juan Soto inked a historic 15-year, $765 million contract to join the New York Mets this past offseason. It was the expected outcome, but it was nonetheless very dramatic.
Soto has been fine in Queens so far — .231 with three home runs and a .798 OPS — but nothing close to resembling his standard output. That will no doubt change as the season progresses, but Soto has developed a maddening habit of incessantly talking about his ex.
His latest comments about Judge and the Yankees raised some eyebrows.
"It’s definitely different [hitting with the Mets],” Soto told the New York Post. “I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me. I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that. I was pitched differently last year.”
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Aaron Judge has proven Juan Soto's bitter Yankees comments undeniably true
That is, frankly, an insane quote from Soto, who is basically throwing his new All-Star teammates under the bus to cover his own tracks. Pete Alonso is not Aaron Judge, but he's also not Alex Verdugo (sorry, had to name somebody). Pitchers aren't keen on throwing meatballs through the zone against Alonso either.
Of course it's more challenging, or at least a different feel, when Judge isn't in the on-deck circle during all your at-bats. But there were better ways to phrase that without sounding like a player dissatisfied with his own free agency decision.
Soto is right, though. Judge is on a different plane of existence from other hitters, and the stats bear it out. He's up to .409 on the season with a whopping 1.322 OPS, scoring 20 runs and logging 21 RBI. There isn't a more intimidating presence in the batter's box this side of Barry Bonds.
Over his last 129 games, Judge has a .359 batting average with 57 home runs, 140 RBI and an 11.6 fWAR. This torrential streak extends back to last season. We can nudge him for his playoffs failures and wonder if the Yankees will ever be good enough to put Judge on the World Series pedestal, but in terms of season-over-season production, he's the best we've seen in a while. And Soto clearly misses hitting in front of him.