JUAN SOTO’S DECISION

Can a person be crushed and ecstatic at the same time over the very same event? Because, as a native New Yorker, that’s exactly what I am over Juan Soto’s decision to leave my beloved Yankees for my beloved Mets.

A few months ago, while watching football, I observed to Mr. X, “Someone’s always miserable in sports.” And this time, it’s us!

But, even though I’m a fan of both New York baseball teams, (I grew up loving the Mets because my father did, and then became a mad Yankees fan at age twenty because of my then-boyfriend,) I still think he’s making a big mistake to leave the Yankees for the Mets. Yes, he is getting a lot more with the move to Queens—at $765 million for fifteen years, it’s an extra five mil and a one year shorter contract than what the Yanks were offering, along with what appears to the dealmaker—a free VIP suite! The Mets agreed to that request, while the Yankees owner said that none of his other star players have ever gotten a free suite, so he’s not going to start bestowing it now. But I just don’t feel like the Mets will get further than they did in this amazing 2024 post-season that they had, even with Soto. And I always feel that the Yanks can at least make the World Series, as they did this year, if not finally win it all again. They’re the storied New York Yankees, for goodness sake!

Soto was soooo happy this past season, to be paired with Yankees Captain Aaron Judge and co-star Giancarlo Stanton. And he appeared to be having a heck of a good time with his fellow Spanish-speakers on the team. He was always smiling and laughing and performing all their secret handshakes as the season progressed. He definitely helped them to be the top team in the American League. And he looked as though he was having the time of his life doing so. (I’ve seen him happily play for the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres before, but this season seemed very different.)

I do understand that as a poor kid growing up in the Dominican Republic, making boatloads of money for all of your hard work is a big motivating factor for all of his professional decisions. But isn’t there a limit to the financial gains? Doesn’t the amount of happiness an activity brings you factor in? I’m not saying that Juan will have less of a good time with the Mets than he did with the Yanks. I’m really hoping it works out for him, and it probably will—those Mets seem like a crazy fun group of guys. But the sheer joy I witnessed during his games this past season made me think he would opt to stay with those teammates for a long time to come.

Juan Soto is now twenty-six, (although you never really know the age of Dominican athletes—their birth certificates are often fudged to make them younger,) so a fifteen-year contract would take him up to when he’s forty-one. At that point, he’ll most likely have either retired or just be a shadow of the player his younger self is today. So the whole contract is a tad weird to me.

On a happier note for the Yanks, they just signed pitcher, (and LA native,) Max Fried. I actually used to know him a bit when he was a kid. His mother was my friend, (and idol!,) for many years, so I’d see Max and his bro when I’d go over to the house. His parents even built a mini baseball diamond in the backyard for them! When they turned it into a pool a few years later, I’d be in there playing games like Marco Polo with the kids. And now Max is a World Series Champion, and better yet, a new New York Yankee!!!

Now I think the Yanks should, (and will,) sign free agent former Mets star, and two-time Home Run Derby winner, *Pete Alonso, to a multi-year contract. *(I can’t even think of his name without thinking of SNL’s Marcello Hernandez’s hilarious introduction of him at this year’s Home Run Derby. He said, “First name in English, second name in Spanish—it’s Pete Alonso!)

And, as always, I’ll be rooting for both the Yanks and Mets in 2025. But perhaps the Soto-less Yanks just a tad more now.