The New York Yankees got at least some measure of revenge on Juan Soto and the New York Mets over the weekend, taking two of three games in the first round of this year's Subway Series. But a couple of wins are far from the only thing Yankees fans are taking victory laps over right now.
It wasn't just that Soto's new team lost a series to his old team. Heck, it wasn't even that Soto himself struggled at the plate, registering just one hit across 10 at-bats. The Yankees didn't just win the war on the field; they won the war of vibes in a major way.
Where Soto was all smiles at the start of play on Friday, even tipping his cap to the chorus of boos raining down from Yankee Stadium, he seemed to want no part of it by the end of the weekend, turning down an on-field interview with ESPN just before first pitch on Sunday night and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but playing baseball in the Bronx.
For Yankees fans, it was the ultimate validation of everything they said about him in the wake of his departure over the offseason. And they got even more validation on Monday morning, when reports began to swirl suggesting that Soto had already started feeling some buyer's remorse.
First came a column from NJ.com's Bob Klapisch, claiming that some within the Mets were "concerned" about Soto's attitude. "The only time Soto seemed happy this weekend," Klapisch wrote, "was while he interacted with Judge, manager Aaron Boone and second baseman Jazz Chisholm during batting practice. Then came radio host and Yankees play-by-play voice Michael Kay, who said that Soto only chose the Mets in the first place because his family wanted him to.
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Yankees fans eat up Juan Soto's reported regret
To be clear, there's plenty of reason to take both of these reports with a grain of salt. Klapisch has become notorious for kicking up drama where none really exists, and there's no reason to think he's well-sourced enough with the Mets to have inside knowledge of how Soto is feeling. Kay, too, is coming at this from a distinctly Yankees point of view, and he's not exactly a capital-j Journalist.
The simplest explanation is that Soto was just understandably fed up after a frustrating weekend. He let those frustrations bleed into his play and his postgame behavior, and he didn't want to spend any more time answering questions about his old team or his relationship with Aaron Judge. But if you think any of that is going to stop Yankees fans from running with this, well, think again.
No matter how much Soto tries to downplay it, his decision over the winter was a direct repudiation of the Yankees in both the short- and long-term. He decided, in no uncertain terms, that the Mets were where he wanted to spend the rest of his MLB career; you can't blame the Bronx for taking that personally. And the fact that he seems to be having such a bad time right now — whether this is just a bump in the road or a sign that he wishes he were still in pinstripes — is the best-case scenario for a wounded fan base.