If anyone thought the temperature was going to be turned down in the Juan Soto signing saga after he actually showed up in Queens and put on a New York Mets jersey for the first time, Thursday quickly proved that theory wrong.
In his introductory news conference as a member of the Mets (which you can watch in its entirety here), Soto touched on a variety of topics, including why he signed with the Mets over the New York Yankees or any other team.
“The Mets are a great organization…what they’ve done the past couple years, to keep winning and try to grow a dynasty is one of the most important things,” Soto said about his choice to sign a 15-year, $765 million deal.
It’s certainly an interesting viewpoint as it was the Yankees (with Soto) that made it all the way to the World Series last season, while the Mets lost out to the eventual World Series-winning Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. And, over those past “couple years” as Soto said, the Yankees are 176-148 (.543), while the Mets are 164-160 (.506). Expand that out three years and the Yankees still hold the advantage 275-211 (.566) to 265-221 (.545).
If it’s about winning and recent performance, Yankees fans can point to the numbers and wonder where the Mets exactly had the advantage in Soto’s mind.
However, one of the more eye-opening statements by Soto on Thursday was when he acknowledged that he had not talked to any of his former teammates with the Yankees since the World Series loss.
It’s an interesting comment as not only does it cement the fact that there were no conversations with his former teammates trying to convince him to stay in the Bronx, but also that Soto did not reach out to Aaron Judge to congratulate him for winning American League Most Valuable Player honors.
Soto did say on Thursday that he considered Judge “a friend,” but it sounds like the relationship was certainly not as close as Yankees fans might have believed during Soto’s pursuit this offseason.
Perhaps most crushing and infuriating to Yankees fans of all was a comment from Soto where he indicated even the best effort from the Yankees wasn’t going to be enough to bring him back.
“I feel like they did everything they had in their power to help me out and bring me back,” Soto said on Thursday. “But I had four other teams doing the same thing…at the end of the day, we looked at everything, looked at the chances, what other teams want to do for the next 15 years, and I think we have the best chance to do it here.”
In Soto’s mind, the future in Queens was brighter than the one in the Bronx. That thought alone will be enough to keep Yankees fans up at night as the team continues to search for a slugger to replace Soto in the lineup.
