Juan Soto Traded to the Yankees
- Thread starter Wingack
- Start date
Good chance it will only be one season, you know they are going to milk it hard, as they should.
I guess we still don't know what the full official deal is so far:
View: https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1732608404571508971?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1732608404571508971?s=20
Congrats to you and the other fans.
Mrs sezwho is a huge Yankees fan (ironic given years at NESN) and she’s looking forward to Soto.
Edit - we watch games on different tvs in different rooms. If it’s a big game, often different states.
The Yankees could have just left King in the pen at the end of the year and we'd just be sitting here, looking at each other.
Bowden, but he says same deal:
View: https://twitter.com/jimbowdengm/status/1732609545996808301?s=46&t=0GHHaPVUX26Io0V2HIcS0g
Hearing the same from Underdog MLB, they named the players. Not sure if their source is Bowden or not but. Also, if you don't follow Underdog, they are amazing with breaking news for every sport, great and fast aggregators. Can't speak highly enough about what they do.
View: https://twitter.com/Underdog__MLB/status/1732610083400413688?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/Underdog__MLB/status/1732610083400413688?s=20
Also Grisham is such a perfect fit on paper behind Verdugo/Judge/Soto. I posted it earlier but he is as good defensively as anyone:
View: https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/1732526007100354660?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/1732526007100354660?s=20
Anyone with a deep knowledge of prospects able to come up with a Red Sox offer that would have been roughly equivalent to what the Yanks gave up?
From what I gather, no one could have matched the major league ready pitching package the Yankees gave up.
SD wanted all pitching back even though they gave up two OFs, so it has to be that.
Both the original trade with Washington for Soto and this one with New York will haunt A.J Preller.
He's not that kind of GM plus as already discussed, he loves to go for it plus he was being ultra aggressive for his dying owner.
Also he is very good at reloading, they have two very young prospects in the overall 10 again already.
Others could, but no one else had the mix of "valuable but not quite elite" MLB ready pitching. Like, the Giants were not going to give up both Kyle Harrison and Carson Whisenhunt. It would've been a better combo, either of those guys is a better prospect than Thorpe, but there's no way the Giants could give up two because they're counting on them to join Webb and make the rotation a contention caliber unit. Ditto for a team like the Jays. Yeah, they could give up Tiedemann, but again, if Tiedemann turns into an ace they look really silly. The Yankees' guys are good enough, but limited enough, to thread the needle in no other team really has.
So now that this is done. to go back to this:
I still only skimmed this but I have him hitting sixth against both righties and lefties as of now, DH against RHP and LF against LHP. He has always crushed lefties, even last year he had a .942 OPS against them (.640 against RHP). If he continues to be awful against RHP, maybe they will drop him to a platoon/bench player but for now they are still hoping he can figure it out, as his bat speed hasn't dropped.
Another underrated aspect of Soto.
View: https://twitter.com/TalkinYanks/status/1732619613634994407?s=20
Has played 150 games every year of his career, aside from the obvious COVID year.
View: https://twitter.com/TalkinYanks/status/1732619613634994407?s=20
Has played 150 games every year of his career, aside from the obvious COVID year.
But by trading Soto, San Diego gets the cachet of acquiring those highly collectible Vaunted Yankees Prospects® that everyone raves about.
Zero chance but I'd say there's a 25% chance he doesn't finish the year with the Yankees. A cut would not happen as a result of this but he remains an imperfect fit for this team, even when he is hitting okay. If he has any value, a salary dump trade is a good idea.
They are talking a lot about him slimming down this winter and specifically training to play the OF again, I think he will be the LF against LHP to start the season and adequate defensive play in LF will give him a longer leash (Verdugo can't hit lefties).
The NYY Twitter account trolled Jon Heyman, kind of funny.
View: https://twitter.com/yankeewrld/status/1732617541183267049?s=12
View: https://twitter.com/yankeewrld/status/1732617541183267049?s=12
On the one hand, I think giving up giant piles of prospects for one year of a guy and the right to sign him to a monster contract is incredibly dumb--just go ahead and outbid for someone on the free agency market---over bid if you have to.
On the other hand, Soto is probably the exact right player to do this for. That said, the fact that he's a consistent minus dWAR knocks him out of that tippy top tier of guys I'd want to spend all the money on.
Ultimately, as a Sox fan, I hate this. Watching Soto and Judge might be like watching Manny and Papi.
On the other hand, Soto is probably the exact right player to do this for. That said, the fact that he's a consistent minus dWAR knocks him out of that tippy top tier of guys I'd want to spend all the money on.
Ultimately, as a Sox fan, I hate this. Watching Soto and Judge might be like watching Manny and Papi.
The Yankees had one bad year and are going to acquire maybe the best hitter in the game and give the godfather out to the best available starting pitcher who happens to also be 25 years old.
The Red Sox haven’t done something like that since the Chris Sale trade 6 years ago. Depressing shit.
The Red Sox haven’t done something like that since the Chris Sale trade 6 years ago. Depressing shit.
I'm sure he'll be in the best shape of his life
Kidding, I'm just sour grapes...what a middle of the order.
There are multiple wild cards on this Yankees offense. Rizzo, Stanton, Volpe, Peraza are all capable of busting out next year. If 2 of them do, it's very exciting thinking about what the offense would be capable of.
Nine months older than Austin Wells and has 160 career HRs already, his accomplishments so far are staggering.
Jason Stark has a rundown of Soto's rankings, broken in to the good and the bad:
Only five hitters have gotten at least 3,000 plate appearances through their age-24 seasons and come out the other side with an OPS+ of 157 or better.
Ty Cobb: 176
Mike Trout: 170
Mickey Mantle: 166
Jimmie Foxx: 166
Juan Soto: 157
A minimum of 2,500 plate appearances:
Ted Williams: 190
Albert Pujols: 167
Tris Speaker: 162
Rogers Hornsby: 158
Soto finished last season with minus-6 Defensive Runs Saved. Only nine full-time outfielders in baseball were worse than that.
Soto's -3 score in Baserunning Runs Above Average, placed him in a tie for fourth-worst base runner in baseball (interestingly DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres were ranked below him).
I tend to think that defense and baserunning stats are marginally useful, and I predict Soto is going to be a massive offensive force for the Yankees next year. BUT, if he's not hitting (like during his first 3 months in San Diego last year: .224/.382/.388), he doesn't bring much else to the table.
Only five hitters have gotten at least 3,000 plate appearances through their age-24 seasons and come out the other side with an OPS+ of 157 or better.
Ty Cobb: 176
Mike Trout: 170
Mickey Mantle: 166
Jimmie Foxx: 166
Juan Soto: 157
A minimum of 2,500 plate appearances:
Ted Williams: 190
Albert Pujols: 167
Tris Speaker: 162
Rogers Hornsby: 158
Soto finished last season with minus-6 Defensive Runs Saved. Only nine full-time outfielders in baseball were worse than that.
Soto's -3 score in Baserunning Runs Above Average, placed him in a tie for fourth-worst base runner in baseball (interestingly DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres were ranked below him).
I tend to think that defense and baserunning stats are marginally useful, and I predict Soto is going to be a massive offensive force for the Yankees next year. BUT, if he's not hitting (like during his first 3 months in San Diego last year: .224/.382/.388), he doesn't bring much else to the table.
Theoretically maybe, but he’s going in the other direction.
Fangraphs has him projected for a better overall season than Judge even with the poor defense and baserunning, we’ll get to see how much of a problem it is for ourselves this season.
The move to the Yankees is perfect for Soto as the small right field should boost his power and will likely mask his defensive shortcomings. Hitting in front of Judge could also mean more strikes, so, in theory, more total bases with a slight reduction in walks. I think that combo is going to put up massive offensive numbers next year but I do wonder about the risk of potential injury to Judge playing Center Field.
As for Soto improving on defense, one anonymous exec (so, take this with a grain of salt) said: “Juan Soto can be as good as he wants to be. He just needs to decide he wants to be.” If the issue is effort/attitude, you'd have to think Soto will be immensely motivated as he approaches free agency.
Interesting random note in looking at Judge and Soto is how relatively few doubles they hit. Soto had a career high last year of 32, which landed him tied for 40th in MLB with Ty France and Bryson Stott. Judge has never his more than 28 doubles in a year.