It’s almost too perfect to be believed, right? The mighty New York Yankees, looking for a way to navigate the whims of October and end their recent spate of playoff angst, make a mega-trade to acquire baseball’s best young offensive player, Juan Soto.
The implication is, of course, “Get us to the World Series, Juan. You’re the missing piece.” But it all worked – Soto proved to be the missing piece. The perfect hitter pushed an imperfect team to become American League champions for the first time since 2009.
Soto delivered the biggest hit in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series, the one that wiped out a very tough Guardians team. In the top of the 10th inning, Soto mashed a three-run home run, a blow that propelled the Yankees to a 5-2 victory over Cleveland. The Yanks won the series, four games to one.
It might be Soto’s signature moment. But he’s so good that it probably won’t be his signature moment by the time his career is over, years from now. Whatever the case and whatever happens in this World Series, Soto has etched himself deep into Yankee lore. Maybe his homer wasn’t the sudden, walk-off dagger of Aaron Boone’s 2003 blast that slayed the Red Sox or the one Chris Chambliss hit in 1976 to beat the Royals, but it did the same job.
“Just such an ability to seize the moment,” Boone said of Soto in the postgame interview room in Cleveland. “Every big moment he found himself in the middle of, he delivered over and over and over again for us.
“In the biggest moments, that’s what he does and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.”
So now Soto, his wrecking-crew partner, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, who won the ALCS MVP after slamming four home runs in the series, and the rest of the Yankees are headed to the Fall Classic against either the Mets or the Dodgers.
This is why the Yankees brought Soto here and it’s what everyone else in pinstripes wants, too. But at various points over the summer, it looked so unlikely that they’d still be playing in October’s chill. Coming off a dismal 82-80 season last year, the Yankees roared to a 50-22 start in the 2024 regular season, but then they wobbled.
And wobbled some more.
Yes, there were days when they looked unstoppable. But there were too many others when they looked ordinary, like they were preparing to be another team’s October patsy. Again. Plenty of their own fans doubted their chances to do postseason damage.
Here they are, though. They beat the Royals in the AL Division Series in four games and then took out the Guardians in five. They did not have to face their nemeses, the Astros, who did not play well enough to meet them along the way. Oh, well. That’s a demon to exorcise another season perhaps.
Through the Yanks’ sometimes-difficult season, Soto was one of the few constants. He never stopped hitting, showing the baseball world why the Yankees sent five players to the Padres in exchange for only one guaranteed season of Soto. This one. It’s hard to contemplate what the atmosphere around the Yankees would have been had they not even gotten this far. It’s only 15 years ago that they won it, though the calendars consulted by Yankee fans count that time as an excruciating Ice Age where minutes take hours.
That, plus the future uncertainty swirling around Soto, is why they had to make the World Series now. Soto is a free agent who will set off epic winter intrigue, with reverberations from The Bronx to Queens and beyond. That’s a saga for a colder day, though, frankly, every team should be trying to sign a talent like him.
For now, he’s an enormous piece of a World Series team, a team in position to accomplish all their goals, especially if he has more at-bats like the one he unleashed in the 10th inning Saturday night.
Soto put on a masterclass in the batter’s box against Cleveland reliever Hunter Gaddis. Soto stalked around, nodding between pitches. He seemed to enjoy the battle with Gaddis, one of the top arms in what had been the best bullpen in baseball all season.
Soto and Gaddis matched guile and wits for seven pitches and Soto fouled off the final four pitches before the at-bat ended with his swing. When Gaddis went to power, Soto matched him. He smashed a 95.2 mile-per-hour fastball – the only fastball Gaddis threw him – 402 feet. He hit the ball nearly 110 mph, according to Statcast.
Not long afterward, the game was sealed. Soto, perhaps fittingly, caught the final out in right field. The Yankees are headed to their 41st Fall Classic, aiming for their 28th World Series title. This is why Soto’s here.
Game 1 is Friday. Friday is Juan Soto’s 26th birthday. Good omens, anyone?
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