The Yankees had failed in their bid to land free agent Shoehei Ohtani, six years ago this month. They responded by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins. That paired Stanton with Aaron Judge. The towering combo hit 29 and 52 homers respectively in 2017 after no player had reached 50 from 2014-16, and no righty had done it since 2010.
But, in a way, Stanton became a linchpin of the steady decline of a Yankee positional group that became too righty, too strikeout prone, too unathletic and too injury-touched.
So — with Ohtani a free agent once again uninterested in The Bronx — the Yankees moved to the brink of forming another Big Two that would anchor a plan to be more diverse. The Yankees as of late Wednesday afternoon were on the brink of obtaining Soto and Trent Grisham for a boatload of pitching plus Kyle Higashioka.
Soto was the center of the Yankees’ plan to rebound from a season in which they ranked 25th in runs per game. Over the past three seasons, Judge leads the majors in offensive Wins Above Replacement (20.2) and Soto is second (18.7). If the deal with San Diego is finalized, Aaron Boone almost certainly will hit them 2-3 in the order and dare opposing teams to navigate this duo 10 times a game.
The philosophy was to pair two mammoth hitters and dare the sport to figure out a way to face them 10 times a game without incurring offensive harm.
The Yankees had failed in their bid to land free agent Shoehei Ohtani, six years ago this month. They responded by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins. That paired Stanton with Aaron Judge. The towering combo hit 29 and 52 homers respectively in 2017 after no player had reached 50 from 2014-16, and no righty had done it since 2010.
But, in a way, Stanton became a linchpin of the steady decline of a Yankee positional group that became too righty, too strikeout prone, too unathletic and too injury-touched.
So — with Ohtani a free agent once again uninterested in The Bronx — the Yankees moved to the brink of forming another Big Two that would anchor a plan to be more diverse. The Yankees as of late Wednesday afternoon were on the brink of obtaining Soto and Trent Grisham for a boatload of pitching plus Kyle Higashioka.
Soto was the center of the Yankees’ plan to rebound from a season in which they ranked 25th in runs per game. Over the past three seasons, Judge leads the majors in offensive Wins Above Replacement (20.2) and Soto is second (18.7). If the deal with San Diego is finalized, Aaron Boone almost certainly will hit them 2-3 in the order and dare opposing teams to navigate this duo 10 times a game.
The Yanks can return to a balance with four lefties regularly part of the starting lineup — Soto, Verdugo, Anthony Rizzo and Austin Wells; and when desired Grisham. In the wings is switch-hitter Jasson Dominguez recovering after Tommy John surgery and possibly Trey Sweeney sometime next season and Spencer Jones in 2025.
Soto and Verdugo also limit strikeouts. Among qualified hitters, Soto led the majors in walk percentage at 18.6 percent. Alex Bregman was the only other player in the top 25 in that category who had a lower strikeout rate (Soto’s was 18.2) than walk rate. Verdugo, Yandy Diaz, Jose Ramirez and Kyle Tucker are the only players with at least 500 plate appearances and a 16 percent or lower strikeout percentage in each of the last three seasons.
The Yanks could have a lineup with Soto, Verdugo and Gleyber Torres with well below average strikeout rates plus Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu, who were hard to whiff guys before last season.
Soto and Verdugo also play a lot, each exceeding 600 plate appearances in each of the last three seasons while Grisham has exceeded 500 in each year.
Defensively, Soto is well below average and Judge’s skills are lesser in center than right. But Grissom is a superb center fielder and if the Yankees get to a familiar point with Stanton on the IL (hat tip to Brian Cashman), the Yanks could line up left to right with a terrific fielding trio of Verdugo, Grisham and Judge — and Soto DH-ing.
But the biggest element of all is getting another 650-plus plate appearances of Soto in conjunction with Judge. Soto is a historic player through his age-24 season and that was enough despite a projected $33 million-ish 2024 salary and just one year until free agency for the Yanks to surrender Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vazquez plus Higashioka.
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