On the many, many occasions he's had to explain why he left the New York Yankees to sign a $765 million deal with the New York Mets this past offseason, one of the things Juan Soto has come back to most often is his supporting cast: While the Yankees reached the World Series in his lone season in the Bronx, the Mets provided what Soto felt like was a more sustainable roadmap for winning into the future. Sure, the Yankees offered Aaron Judge, but a move to Queens came with an ascending roster that featured plenty of star power of its own — plus an impressive development track record under David Stearns.
But just two weeks into his tenure with the Mets, it sounds like Soto might be rethinking that evaluation. In the past, Soto has walked a fine line whenever he's been asked about Judge, complimenting the two-time MVP while still insisting that Queens was the best place for him moving forward. His latest praise of No. 99, though, also reads like a direct shot at his new teammates.
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Juan Soto's praise of Aaron Judge comes at the expense of new Mets teammates like Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso
Soto certainly isn't off to a bad start with the Mets, with a homer in New York's win over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night bumping his OPS+ up to a healthy 142. But he's not doing quite as much damage as we've become accustomed to, with just six extra-base hits across his first 70 plate appearances. When asked why, he offered an ... interesting explanation.
“It’s definitely different,” Soto told the New York Post about the way he's been pitched so far with his new team. “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.”
There were plenty of ways for Soto to answer that question, or even to allude to pitchers treating him differently now that he didn't have Judge looming behind him. But he chose the one that directly implicated guys like Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, implying that pitchers around the league are more than happy to pitch to those All-Stars in a way they weren't to Judge last season.
Of course, Judge is in a different class than Lindor and Alonso as a hitter; he has far and away the highest OPS in the Majors since the start of the 2022 season. But while Lindor has gotten off to a slow start at the plate in 2025, Alonso certainly hasn't, leading the NL in OPS while walking more than he's struck out. Most of baseball would kill for that sort of lineup protection, and it can't feel good to have your new superstar teammate compare you unfavorable to his old superstar teammate.