Aaron Judge seems unbelievably salty about Juan Soto in obvious IG shot
The one year that Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were teammates on the New York Yankees obviously went quite well for the Pinstripes. The slugging duo helped lead the Yankees to an AL Pennant and, though they fell short against the Dodgers in the World Series, it was high vibes around what two of the best hitters in baseball could do together in the future.
We obviously won't know the answer to that now, though, because the tandem only lasted one year. Soto signed with the crosstown New York Mets for an appalling $765 million contract that will tie him to Queens for the next decade and a half. That's something that Yankees fans were and have continued to be salty about, even with Brian Cashman pivoting quite masterfully to still construct a winner in the Bronx.
And we finally got a sign on New Year's Eve going into New Year's Day that Judge might not be all too happy about the Soto departure either.
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Aaron Judge posts salty 2024 IG recap that's missing Juan Soto
Judge took to Instagram and posted a recap of his 2024, which featured a plethora of Yankees teammates, as you'd expect. What you wouldn't expect unless the home-run hitter was extremely salty about Soto leaving in free agency is for Judge to leave Soto out of the photo montage entirely — but that's exactly what he did.
How does Judge not think that people would immediately notice Soto's exclusion? That feels like a poor call on his part if he didn't want to create any drama. But hey, maybe the Yankees captain did want a little bit of juice — it could be something for his teammates to rally around, being abandoned by Soto.
Having said that, with the World Series run for the Yankees obviously featured in Judge's IG post, it's a bit ironic that Soto isn't there. After all, even the most ardent fan of the Bronx Bombers can't deny that Soto (in addition to Giancarlo Stanton) ostensibly dragged a struggling postseason Judge to the Fall Classic.
Soto led the Yankees in the postseason with a 1.101, hitting four home runs, driving in nine runs and simply being one of the best hitters in baseball. Judge, on the other had, did post a slightly above-average .752 OPS but did so while hitting just .184 and striking out 20 times (second-most on the Yankees in the playoffs) in 49 at-bats. That's certainly not what you want.
But Judge and Yankees fans should probably get the salt out of their diet soon. As mentioned, Cashman has done wonderfully moving quickly on from Soto, signing Max Fried, trading for Cody Bellinger and trading for Devin Williams. It's hard to replace Soto, but it's not impossible to still build a winning baseball team after losing him, which is what's been done.
Having said that, this IG recap from Judge should have everyone on the edge of their seat for the Mets and Yankees facing off in the 2025 season, particularly the Mets' May 16-18 trip to Yankee Stadium. If there's bad blood still lingering, there could be real fireworks.