Why you trade for Juan Soto

 The New York Yankees are playing in the World Series for the first time since 2009. One of the major reasons why is trading for Juan Soto in the offseason and installing him in the batting order in front of Aaron Judge. The Yanks in 2023 were coming off their worst season in 30 years at 82-80, missing out on the playoffs, facing the never-ending pressure of the Yankee fan and New York media, and in need of an old-school Yankee power move. They did and it worked out.

The three-run home run Juan Soto hit off Hunter Gaddis to win Game 5 of the ALCS is the reason you trade for Juan Soto. That at-bat and that home run is the entire Juan Soto experience in a nutshell. If you don’t match Soto’s neurotic competitive-ism at all times you will lose in a big way. Many “experts” who watch Juan Soto say he “settles” for walks. The Yankee right fielder doesn’t settle for anything. He wears out the pitcher to the point where the hurler would rather move past Soto to face Aaron Judge because they don’t have anything left to get Soto out with. Juan Soto grinds every pitch to dust. He wants to win every at-bat that badly. He wants to be that good all the time. No matter what. If you cannot match that you lose. That’s why when the moments are the biggest Juan Soto usually rises to the occasion. Because the brightest lights don’t phase someone who competes pitch for pitch the same way from February to October. He has been doing this from jump street with the Yankees. When the games didn’t matter, he was still fighting for every pitch and when he got his pitch, he demolished it. If you look at the very first at-bats Soto took in a Yankee uniform in the early days of Spring Training compared to the home run hit off Gaddis—they are frighteningly similar at-bats. That’s why you trade for Juan Soto.

The competitive nature that Soto has was the missing piece to last years’ Yankees, and it has shown up in the postseason. Look at the way Gleyber Torres has set the table so far in the postseason. Or how locked in Anthony Volpe has been at the plate. Or the fact that Anthony Rizzo is battling through two broken fingers and hitting better than most people do with a healthy 10 digits. When you have a guy willing to be that focused at the plate, like Soto is, it wears off on the rest of the roster. The Yankees lineup has no choice but to be as locked in as possible with one of the best players taking that approach. That is why you trade for Juan Soto.

You also trade for Juan Soto because only a handful of guys in Major League Baseball could hit the pitch that he did for a home run. He’s a generational talent and those don’t grow on trees. Brian Cashman did the right thing. When given the opportunity to trade for a guy like Soto you do it regardless of who you have to give up in the farm system. The results of a trade like the Soto trade play themselves out on the field and you’ve seen that from the 2024 Yankees.

Let’s not forget in this incredible playoff run that the Yankees won 94 games, had the best record in the American League, and the American League East Division Title to get here. How they got to those 94 wins is up to you to decide how you want to view them, but the habits the Yankees are showcasing in the postseason are built up in winning that many games and a division crown. That is in part to trading for Juan Soto.

Because when you trade for a guy like the 25-year-old slugger, it sends a message to the rest of the ball club that the organization believes they can win it all. The expectation that every Yankee fan has of winning a World Series every year is now once again an actual mandate to the members of the team when Soto walks in the clubhouse. You trade for Juan Soto to put the necessary pressure on the ball club. That pressure will be actualized on Friday night in Los Angeles, but that’s why you trade for Juan Soto.