Aaron Judge certainly wasn't first on the list of people New York Yankees fans wanted to blame for their team losing out on Juan Soto to the rival New York Mets this winter. Soto himself probably gets that honor, with owner Hal Steinbrenner not too far behind for his seeming unwillingness to do whatever it took to make Soto and his family feel comfortable in the Bronx.
But that doesn't mean that Judge was entirely blameless, or that he hasn't taken any heat at all over the last couple of months. On the contrary: When Soto claimed that he hadn't had any contact with his former Yankees teammates — Judge included — during his free agency, fans and media alike had plenty of questions about what that meant regarding the dynamics inside New York's clubhouse. Judge is the Yankees captain; isn't it on him to sell Soto on sticking with the franchise for the long haul, both during and after the season?
Instagram subterfuge aside, Judge has, for the most part, has opted to ignore that criticism, instead offering polite compliments to his now-former teammate while expressing plenty of confidence in the Yankees' present and future. But that changed on Tuesday, when the reigning AL MVP finally opened up a bit about his relationship with Soto — why it's been misunderstood publicly, and more importantly, why he did everything he could have or should have done to recruit Soto back to pinstripes.
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Aaron Judge finally sets the record straight regarding relationship with Juan Soto ... sort of
As it turns out, Soto didn't ghost Judge and the Yankees after all. In fact, the two remain friends: Just a day after Soto homered in his first spring training game as a Met, he got a FaceTime call from Judge to catch up and see how things were going with his new team.
“I asked him how camp was going, how he was getting along with the new guys, about the whole situation over there,” Judge said, according to Bob Klapisch of NJ.com.
“Juan’s an incredible guy. I told him, ‘You’re the best there is at fitting in. You came over here and were one of us from day one. You’re going to be just fine.’”
Judge once again refused to stir up any unnecessary drama, reiterating that Soto made the best decision for himself and his family by taking a 15-year, $765 million contract in Queens. But he also went out of his way at multiple points to offer proof of his relationship with Soto and a defense of how he handled the outfielder's free agency, claiming that he didn't reach out over the winter only because Soto had gotten a new cell number and Judge "didn’t want to be that guy who was another annoyance in his corner."
Apparently, Judge had spent the prior eight or nine months giving Soto the hard sell every chance he could get, including during games.
“We’d say, “Listen to those people, look at the fans, they love you,’” Judge said. “We’d joke around about it, but the whole year I would tell Juan how much he means to us and how great it would be if he was here."
Which is all well and good, although it does beggar belief a bit that Judge couldn't have gotten Soto's new number and lobbed in a simple "hey, I know you're swamped right now, but I just wanted to say we love you and want you back and I'm here if you need anything" text. And it still leaves the question: If Judge had really done everything he could during Soto's one year as a Yankee to convince him to stay, why didn't he feel comfortable enough to sign on the dotted line? Some of the narrative around Judge and Soto's relationship is undoubtedly overblown, but the core concern about the former's captaincy remains.