New York Yankees star Juan Soto is returning to the lineup. Soto suffered an injury scare on Thursday. The outfielder was dealing with an arm injury, but fortunately he dodged a serious issue. According to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, Soto is set to return to the lineup and DH against the Kansas City Royals on Monday.
Having Soto back so soon is obviously a promising sign. He has enjoyed a tremendous first season with New York so far, so losing him for a significant amount of time would have been far from ideal.
Aaron Judge, who had played in 67 consecutive games, is receiving the night off, though. It appears to be a routine day off for the Yankees slugger.
The primary story is Soto's return. When the injury first happened, Yankees fans feared the worst. Soto, who is in a contract year, obviously wants to stay healthy as well. He's on track to land a massive contract in MLB free agency.
Juan Soto tearing the cover off the baseball in 2024
At just 25 years old, Soto has established himself as one of the best pure hitters in the sport. He does almost everything well offensively.
Soto is currently slashing .318/.424/.603/1.027 across 64 games played. He has also hit 17 home runs and 11 doubles. Soto's ability to record plenty of hits while also drawing no shortage of walks makes it almost impossible for pitchers to plan to face him. If a pitcher misses his spot by just a little bit, Soto will lay off. However, he is also more than capable of getting hits on difficult pitches.
He is hitting the ball harder than he ever has before in 2024 as well, per Baseball Reference. The Yankees outfielder owns a stellar 59.5 percent hard-hit rate heading into Monday's game. His highest hard-hit rate in a season before the 2024 campaign was 55.4 percent, something he accomplished in 2023 with the San Diego Padres.
Soto truly is tearing the cover off the baseball this year.
Soto's return to lineup
The Yankees have completely turned things around in 2024 after a forgettable 2023 performance. New York missed the postseason in 2023, but they look like a potential World Series contender right now.
Juan Soto and Aaron Judge deserve a lot of credit for the team's success. Of course, the rotation has held up its end of the bargain despite Gerrit Cole's injury, while the bullpen features a number of capable weapons.
The hope moving forward is that Soto can stay healthy. He has been durable for most of his career, even playing in 162 games in 2023 with the Padres. Overall, Soto has appeared in 150 or more contests on four separate occasions during his career. He can still accomplish the feat in 2024 as well.
The Royals will present a challenge for the Yankees. Kansas City has struggled in recent seasons, but they have a 39-27 record as of this story's writing. As a result, they are in second place in the American League Central. Monday's game, and the entire series for that matter, projects to be competitive.
New York will surely feel confident heading into the series with Juan Soto back in the lineup.
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