Is Juan Soto the Yankees’ New A-Rod?
At the time of this writing, we’ve seen an incredibly small sample size from Juan Soto playing in pinstripes: one home run and one commanding double, and both in February exhibition games.
Like my fellow fans, I’ve been something of a moth to a flame at the 2024 start of televised baseball. I took Jack Curry’s advice today to not make myself a snack knowing that Soto was on deck, after which he hit that double.
What gives me just the slightest of measured pause about Soto is the bravado in which he has come in without having shown us anything of consequence yet. He’s shown the MLB and the NL of course, but not us, the Yankees faithful — and that’s all I care about.
To wear a t-shirt to your introductory press conference claiming yourself to be a generational talent before you even step in the box at Yankee Stadium … Pardon me, but that’s a bridge too far for yours truly, who, since 2001, has suffered through the aftermath of overblown signings of Jason Giambi, Randy Johnson, Giancarlo Stanton, and more. (Of course, there have been many more disappointing signings, but it would be offensive to Soto to hint that a Carl Pavano or Johnny Damon are in his orbit. Maybe it’s even offensive to Soto to put Giambi in this litany.)
To Soto’s favor: these men were past their chronological prime when becoming Yankees, and Soto is just getting started at the ripe age of 25. That is the main reason that I’m optimistic about Soto following through on his God-given potential. We’re getting a fresh body who is nowhere close to being a has-been.
I keep likening Soto to A-Rod, who joined us just about smack in the middle of his playing career (God, was he there that long?), and is closer to Soto talent-wise than any Yankees trade or free-agent signing in recent times.
A-Rod’s achilles heel in pinstripes was A-Rod. He got in his own head, in his own way, in his own veins. The ultimate source of this behavior? Lack of humility. And so, because I’m drawing a comparison here: while I am excited for the needed blood infusion that Soto brings to our lineup, I’m not yet smitten given the demonstrated lack of humility thus far.
Let me put some of my initial reservations in writing — yes, admittedly, on Day 3 of Spring Training play — so you can say that you read it here first if anything comes to fruition. If not, then I’m wrong and will be all the happier for it.
*A-Rod joined the Yankees in 2004, the season after Derek Jeter was named Captain. Aaron Judge is and will be captain at the time of Soto’s signing and possible extension. The existing animosity between Jeter and A-Rod was and continues to be well documented. A-Rod was absolutely the more talented player than Jeter, but the latter was the more beloved and it ate the former alive. Anyone who knows me knows that I love my Derek, but his unwillingness to squash the riff in real-time was the least Captain-y thing about him.
Judge, likewise beloved, and Soto have no such contentious relationship going into their joint tenure as Bronx Bombers, but will this become a storyline down the road? Rephrase: does Soto make it a storyline down the road? Assuming there is something more than friendly competition that develops, can Judge “rise” above it (pun intended)? Perhaps naively, I have too much confidence in Judge as a team’s man to make anything about himself.
*Can Soto be Soto and a Yankee? Can he maintain the swag (doing the home-run trot at a glacial pace around the bases at Yankee Stadium, as he did today in Tampa) and embody the more serious spirit of the Yankees? Or to my point earlier about the bottom line: should I even care?! Didn’t we get him to be him, like we got A-Rod to be A-Rod?
My current verdict is: let the kid play and come what may.
I’m happier that Jeter won a fifth ring in 2009 than I am resentful that he got it because the selfish A-Rod was an invaluable member of that team. Likewise, a first ring for Judge and Gerrit Cole (and Gleyber Torres and so on…) means more to me than Soto’s humility or even longevity as a Yankee.
My gut tells me that Soto is and will always be on Team Soto. But since I am on Team Yankees, I’ll take whatever the team needs (within the bounds of legality and ethics) to see a twenty-eighth championship flag fly high in the Bronx.
