May 24, 2024, 6:28 PM ET
The Dominican gardener lives an idyllic period with those from the Bronx while in California little has changed
Although at some point the Yankees talk about reducing their payroll in the future, everything was going well on the grounds of the Bronx with the team in first position in the East division of the American League, with Aaron Judge returning to his best version and Gerrit Cole close to his return to the mound.
But perhaps the big story in New York is that of Juan Sotowho with his production on the field and with the great innate charisma he possesses, has conquered Yankees fans.
This won’t be just any weekend at Petco Park. It is marked by the return of Soto, who faces the San Diego Padres for the first time since the trade in December that sent the Dominican to the Yankees for pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito and catcher Kyle Higashioka.
Juan Soto’s brief time with the Padres was fun. The Dominican trident he formed with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. was exciting. If you added Xander Bogaerts they became ‘The Fantastic Four’. But none of that gave the expected results on the field of play. The Padres with Soto did not transcend and left us with that feeling that all this could have been better.
The Padres and the Yankees will meet starting this Friday in a three-game series, the only time these two teams will meet in the current Major League Baseball season. I repeat, it will not be just any weekend.
The consensus is that the Soto trade benefited both franchises, waiting to see what will happen to some of the prospects obtained by the Padres, but to date the Yankees have obtained immediate benefits.
The San Diego team was never able to enjoy, unfortunately, a start to the season like the one Juan Soto is having in 2024 with the New York team. In 2022 he arrived in the middle of the season and in 2023 he did not reach the statistics that he is putting in this new stage.
In the first 52 games of 2023, Soto had a batting average of .263 with only 24 RBIs, accumulating three fewer home runs and leaving an OBP nearly 20 points higher than what he has this season.
With the Yankees the start has been a dream with an offensive line of .312/.409/.563 with 13 homers, 41 RBIs, 38 runs scored and only 36 strikeouts, well below the 49 he received at the beginning of the season 2023 with the Padres.
Juan Soto returns to San Diego and should be received as a star, even though his stay with the Padres did not produce the desired results. It only remains to be known if Soto will start the 2025 season with the Yankees.
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