The game everyone has had circled on their MLB calendars is now almost upon us, as Juan Soto gets set to make his return to Yankee Stadium as a member of the New York Mets on Friday night. It's the most anticipated regular-season matchup in recent baseball history, and it will give everyone a chance to re-litigate Soto's blockbuster free agency that ended in the outfielder taking $765 million of Steve Cohen's money.
One person in particular, however, has no interest in re-litigating anything. Aaron Judge has good reason to be sick of this whole saga: On the heels of an embarrassing playoff performance, Soto's decision to leave the New York Yankees behind was in many ways taken as a repudiation of Judge, who was raked over the coals for a perceived disinterest in recruiting his costar.
Judge has, for the most part, avoided the subject entirely over the ensuing months, focused instead on getting the Yankees back to the postseason (and maybe making some baseball history while he's at it). But he finally shed a little bit of light on his end of the Soto sweepstakes, and he dropped some hard truths on Yankees fans in the process.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Aaron Judge knows there was nothing he could say to keep Juan Soto a Yankee
For as much criticism as Judge came in for, and for as intensely pored over as Soto's comments about his ex-teammate were, this was always a red herring. In reality, the outfielder's decision was never going to come down to something as small and silly as whether he liked Judge personally or whether No. 99 sent him a text or two over the winter. Soto was making a decision about the rest of his baseball career; the only things that mattered were money and winning, in whatever order you'd like.
Judge said as much to the New York Post on Wednesday. “I tried to do my part, but for the most part let him make his decision," he said. "Because a couple words that I say aren’t going to make a big decision for what you think is best for you and your family. He played with us for the whole spring, postseason, regular season, so he knew what we were all about here. I’m happy for him and the deal that he signed.”
Yankees fans want desperately for Soto to be the bad guy, to find some smoking gun that proves that he was a dastardly villain who can soak up all the blame for a craven and nonsensical decision. In the real world, though, Steve Cohen offered the most money, and the Mets had a lot to offer competitively after reaching the NLCS with an exciting young core. That's really all this comes down to, even if it's not as satisfying to throw blame at.
And besides, it sounds like Soto and the Yankees are doing just fine.
“When it comes down to it, the friendship Juan and I have is No. 1 for me,” Judge went on. “Obviously I want the Yankees to win, that’s my first priority, and helping the team field the best team. But once a guy makes his decision that he’s going to go somewhere else, it’s like, ‘How can I support him and help him out?’ That’s where I’m at.”
Soto had a perfectly fun year in the Bronx, no matter how badly people want to read into his body language. He's also having a perfectly fun time in Queens right now, as well he should. This was never about anything but what every other free agency has been about, and while Yankees fans will remain convinced that Soto was twirling his mustache behind the scenes, that seems pretty far from the truth.
“A guy that people loved in here as a teammate,” Judge said. “He helped out a lot of guys, whether it was talking hitting, talking baseball stuff, anything like that. He’s just a baseball savant with a lot of things, especially approach-wise.”