The New York Yankees and New York Mets are always looking over their shoulders to see what the other is doing and improve on it. This was heightened during the current offseason, with Juan Soto’s move from the Yankees to the Mets. It was a blow to the Yankees’ prestige as MLB’s most dominant franchise, which has always kept its city neighbors in the shadows.
With the arrival of the four-time All-Star to Queens, this gap could begin to close. While the MLB season is just over a month old, the results have been mixed so far:
The Mets (19-9) had the best record in baseball until before their game on Monday, but not thanks to Soto, who is hitting just .248/.374/.396 with three home runs and 12 RBIs, very poor for a player with a 15-year, $765 million contract. That’s why team owner Steve Cohen spoke about the issue Monday in an interview with SNY’s Danny Abriano.
“I’m not worried about Juan. He’s totally focused on baseball. He’s a pure hitter. We’ll talk about it at the end of the year,” he said confidently, knowing that only 28 of 162 games have been played. If Soto gets back to his career averages (.284/.419/.528), the league will be in trouble as the Mets’ starters are off to a great start to the season, with the best ERA in the league at 2.52
While the other figures in the team Pete Alonso (.333/.451/.646, six home runs, 12 RBIs) and Francisco Lindor (.312/.366/.486, five home runs, 14 RBIs) are having a great start to the season
Life after Soto for the Yankees
Meanwhile, the Yankees (17-11), although they lost one of their most important bats (Soto had an offensive line of .288/.419/.569 with 41 home runs and 109 RBIs in the regular season and averages of .327/.469/.633 with four home runs and nine RBIs in the playoffs. While it is difficult to replace that production, the team has managed to get several players to cover those figures.
Additionally, Aaron Judge leads the league with a .406 batting average and 1.217 OPS, is tied for third with eight home runs and is second with 27 RBIs. Meanwhile, the newly signed Paul Goldschmidt also has interesting averages: .365/.417/.471 batting average, one home run and 10 RBIs
Similarly, Trent Grisham (.298/.385/.684, seven home runs, 13 RBIs) and Oswaldo Cabrera (.278/.350/.347, seven home runs, 18 RBIs) are having a very important year. They are joined by Ben Rice (.259/.370/.541, six home runs, 11 RBIs), in just his first full season in the majors.
On the other hand, in 2024, only Judge and Soto were the only consistent hitters in the regular season before Giancarlo Stanton was injured and missed playing time with an arm injury. In addition to Jazz Chisholm Jr., whom they acquired at the trade deadline, their next best hitter was Gleyber Torres (.257/.330/.378, 15 home runs, 63 RBIs).
Goldschmidt, Grisham, Cabrera and Rice may underperform at times, but the Yankees have found a way to play as a team without Soto, with Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger as contingency options, while Grisham now has more playing time
Curiously, Soto’s free agency decision is working for both teams and will define their playoff and championship results in the coming years.
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