Subscribe
Follow Us
Juan Soto has joined the New York Mets, to the tune of a 15-year, $765-million contract, the largest deal in pro sports history. Moreover, the deal came down to the wire, as the Yankees presented a $760-million offer for 16 years, nearly enough to tilt the scales in their favor, but Soto ultimately chose to spend the rest of his career in Queens. Amid the fallout of this landmark deal, sports analyst Stephen A Smith shared some rumors about Juan Soto's relationship with AL MVP Aaron Judge, which may have influenced Soto to leave the Yankees in free agency.
“I've heard that Juan Soto wasn't really feeling Aaron Judge,” Smith said on Wednesday's episode of ESPN's First Take, via Reice Shipley of Awful Announcing. “I don't know the particulars. I don't cover the team. But that's what I heard from people in the Dominican community that I know personally.”
Trouble on the Yankees?
If Stephen A Smith's sources were right, then Juan Soto and Aaron Judge might have faced some friction, particularly after how the Yankees lost the World Series in five games last October.
“If you are Juan Soto and you are going up against the Dodgers, and you saw Mookie Betts play the way that he played along with others. And you watch Aaron Judge come up so small in the heat of that competition. Is that what you want to stick with for years to come?”
True enough, Smith's reference to Judge's disappearing act in the World Series and Judge dropping a fly ball–part of the tragic fifth inning of Game 5 that virtually lost them the World Series–may have influenced Soto's decision to sign with the Mets, who also lost to the Dodgers.
“You want a dog with you,” the sports pundit continued. “You want a guy that you can trust to be in the foxhole with you and is going to be out there doing what they are supposed to do.”
At some point, Smith added to his insinuations that Judge may have lost the Yankees one of their star players.
“We can look at the rest of the Yankees, but if Aaron Judge had a better series, we're talking about them winning Game 1, and we're likely talking about that being a seven-game series–if Aaron Judge had shown up. And if you are Juan Soto, you have to think about that,” he added.
Team pivoting
During the Juan Soto sweepstakes, Judge did say that he wanted to give his former teammate some space to decide on his own, giving some credence to Smith's claims that both players weren't that close.
Still, as Soto heads to a new team, the Yankees immediately retooled, using some of the money they had earmarked for him on landing Max Fried with an eight-year, $218-million contract.
Could the Yankees finally add to their 27 World Series championships? First, they have to show that life after Juan Soto is possible.
