Juan Soto claps back at Luis Severino’s 'two good hitters' comments

The New York Mets took a calculated risk this offseason, inking former New York Yankees pitcher Luis Severino to a one-year deal. Severino was once a budding star for the Yankees but he dealt with a bevy of injuries during his tenure in the Bronx and had an abysmal 2023 campaign.

He had hoped that he'd bounce back in a new environment and has done that, posting a 3.58 ERA in 19 starts and 115.2 innings pitched this season. He has been a stabilizing force in an inconsistent Mets rotation.

Despite his wishes to face his former team, Mets manager (and former Yankees bench coach) Carlos Mendoza chose to pass on starting Severino against the Yankees when they came to Citi Field in late June. The reason for that was Mendoza wanted to use a pair of left-handed starters against a Yankees team that has struggled against left-handed pitching this season. The Yankees rank 14th in WRC+ against left-handed pitching and 1st against righties, so that makes sense.

Mendoza's rotation shuffling worked out in his favor, as the Mets swept the Yankees handily, scoring 21 runs in the two games.

Understandably, the Mets wanted to stick with the same formula that worked for them when the Yankees came to Queens, so again, Severino was passed on when it came to starting a game in this week's Subway Series at Yankee Stadium.

While speaking to the media recently, Severino revealed that he was still in a group chat with some of his former Yankees teammates who were trash-talking him in a joking manner, saying Severino is afraid of them as he isn't going to face them. Severino, in perfect fashion, responded by saying that he's not afraid of them because they only have two good hitters.

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Juan Soto responds to Luis Severino's trash talk

The hitters Severino was referring to are Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, arguably the two best hitters in the sport. His comments have irked several members of the team with Soto being the latest one.

In a sense, Soto is right in his response. The Yankees did dominate in the first half, and it takes more than two players to play as well as they did, but if we're being real here, is Severino far off?

Soto and Judge are MVP-caliber players. There's no disputing that. By the time the season comes to an end, they could easily finish as the top two finishers in the AL MVP balloting. The rest of the lineup though, objectively leaves a lot to be desired.

Giancarlo Stanton was looking like he was going to have a strong year, but he's once again sidelined due to injury.

It looked like Anthony Volpe was going to break out into stardom after his hot start to the season but he has cooled down substantially and has been removed from the leadoff spot. He looks like nothing more than a singles hitter who plays a strong shortstop right now.

Veterans Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo, DJ LeMahieu, and Anthony Rizzo have all had great years in the past, but have struggled for much of this season. They've looked like complete non-factors in this lineup.

Youngsters Austin Wells and Ben Rice have flashed potential, but they're far from proven. They can be good, but how good are they right now? Rice is currently hitting in front of Soto and Judge every day, and Wells is hitting behind them. Are they potent leadoff and cleanup hitters right now?

Soto and Judge both have OPS figures over 1.000. They're also the only ones with an OPS over .800 on this team. The only player with an OPS over .700 who is currently healthy with at least 100 plate appearances is Ben Rice who has just 106 plate appearances. These are indisputable statistics that show just how Soto-Judge-oriented this team really is, and say how comments like these have no real backing.

While yes, the Yankees lead the majors in runs scored as of this writing, it often does feel like a two-man show. To their credit, they're still 18 games over .500 despite that fact, but it's very hard to blame Severino for thinking that those two are the lone hitters to worry about right now. Hopefully, Brian Cashman can do something at the trade deadline to fix that and add much-needed length to this lineup.