During the last game of the 2024 baseball season – as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series to clinch a championship in front of a sold-out crowd of disappointed New Yorkers – there were still Yankees fans buying No 22 Juan Soto jerseys at the ballpark. This was noteworthy because as soon as the game ended, Soto was a free agent.
He had been traded to New York from the San Diego Padres – where he landed after a bombshell trade from the Washington National team that drafted him and with whom he won a World Series in 2019 – just ahead of his walk year. But Soto had endeared himself to the fervent fanbase quickly. In 2024, he was 80% better than average at the plate according to wRC+ and, with the towering Aaron Judge hitting behind him, led the American League in runs scored. And it seemed his swagger fit with the famous franchise that brought him back to the Fall Classic for the first time since he was 20 years old.
Advertisement
Related: Pete Rose returns to the Hall conversation as baseball embraces his original sin
And so, even as the season dwindled around them, Yankees fans sprang for the pricey pinstripes sold in team stores. Some of them were Dominicans who vowed to root for their countryman wherever he went. Some of them simply wanted a souvenir from a summer in the Bronx worth commemorating. Some of them assumed he would be back.
On Friday night, he was. Soto roaming right field at Yankee Stadium. Soto sauntering to the plate and doffing his cap to the crowd. But now the gesture was cheeky, a joke with his new teammates who had tittered in the dugout about how funny it would be, and the crowd met it with resounding boos.
Over the winter, the New York Mets made Soto the richest professional athlete in North America, signing him to a 15-year, $765 million contract. It was the capstone of an evolution several years in the making for the Mets from charmingly hapless to heavy hitters that coincided with über-billionaire Steve Cohen buying the club. Of course, Soto could have been the richest professional athlete in North America who still played for the Yankees – reportedly he rejected their offer of a 16-year deal worth $760m. Whatever affinity he felt for the Yankees was worth less than $5m. Or maybe it was just New York that he loved.
Advertisement
Friday night was the start of a Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees that might have been the best matchup of MLB’s debut ‘Rivalry Weekend’ even without the Soto of it all. For just the third time since the debut of the Subway Series in 1997, both teams have sole possession of first place in their respective divisions. Both entered the season with skyscraper-high expectations and have thus far lived up to them.
There was reason to believe Yankee Stadium might be evenly split. Even-ish, anyway. However far Yankees fans traveled to be at the game Friday night, Mets fans couldn’t have traveled much further. And yet, Soto’s reception left no doubt which fanbase dominated the 47,400-strong crowd. They booed him at every at-bat. As he ran out to right field in the bottom of the first, the entire section of seats turned their back on him. When they turned around it was to hurl profanity at him. Soto met their middle fingers with a wry salute.
As for the No 22 jerseys bought back when he was one of their own, some Yankees fans made their own alterations – one added a choice four-letter word scrawled on tape atop the nameplate, another wrote “Arroz” over the number, a nod to the newest Yankee No 22, Ben Rice.
At one point, Soto tossed a ball into the stands as he jogged off the field at the end of a half inning on defense. The Yankees fans around there roared with cheers when whoever caught it threw it back rather than relish a keepsake tainted by an ex.
Advertisement
“It’s New York, it’s what you sign up for,” said Clay Holmes before the game about the raucous atmosphere. An All-Star reliever with the Yankees, he, too, only went as far as a borough away in the offseason. He signed with the Mets, who have since turned him into a capable starter. “It’s what you want. You can feel the energy, the buzz. It’s a lot more fun to show up to the park.”
To underscore that this is a clash of true baseball titans, we should say that the Yankees, scorned by Soto, did not go on to wallow away the offseason. The money that could have gone to a single preternaturally gifted young star instead was instead used to plug holes around the roster with additions from baseball’s B list: lefty pitcher Max Fried, closer Devin Williams, and a couple of post-peak former MVPs in Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger. Fried, in particular, has proven essential and ascendant – he currently owns the lowest ERA in baseball, especially necessary on a contending Yankee club that has lost Cy Young award winner Gerrit Cole for the season and has thus far been without Cole’s worthy replacement from last year and reigning Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil.
Cohen, for all his largess, never would have sprung for Fried, whose eight-year, $218m contract is the largest ever for a lefty. Under new general manager David Stearns, the Mets philosophy has favored splurging on position players and finding value on the margins when it comes to pitching. The converted Holmes, for example.
It’s ironic, then, that the Yankees, who lost a player most often compared to Ted Williams, have started the season with perhaps the strongest offense in the sport. And the Mets, who eschewed top-of-the-line starters to budget for a $700m hitter, have the best starting rotation ERA.
Advertisement
Ultimately, the Yankees bats overpowered the Mets pitching in a 6-2 trouncing that almost got exciting in the ninth inning before Soto flied out with the bases loaded. It sent the Yankees fans who booed him home happy, but it elides the otherwise perfectly acceptable day he had at the plate: three walks, a stolen base, a run scored.
In the lead up to the Subway Series, both sides were asked about the presumed impending boos that would rain down on Soto specifically. Which is to say, it was no surprise.
“I was ready for it,” Soto said after the game, confirming that it was likely the loudest he’d ever been booed in his career. “You’ve got to embrace it at the end of the day.”
If his new union with the Mets works out the way both sides hope, the Yankees will be the last team Soto leaves on bad terms. The dynamic has added spice to a rivalry that was heating up anyway. The era of the must-see Subway Series has just begun.
Read the full article here
