Aaron Judge talks Juan Soto, how he'll try to convince him to stay with Yankees
Juan Soto's 2024 season is his walk year.
In pursuit of their 28th World Series championship, the Yankees pushed their chips to the center of the table and acquired the superstar outfielder in a massive trade with the San Diego Padres earlier in the offseason. However, the risk of losing Soto to free agency is there, just as it was with Aaron Judge a few years ago.
While his teammates didn’t publicly try to convince Judge to stay in the Bronx -- Anthony Rizzo did say later that he sent the slugger pictures of their dogs together -- they supported him on and off the field, and that helped him decide to re-sign.
And Judge wants to do the same for Soto.
"The biggest thing is being there for him. Being a good teammate, supporting him," Judge told reporters on Tuesday. "Know that there’s going to be quite a lot of pressure, there’s going to be a lot of expectations and just understanding that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. That’s the biggest thing I got from all of my teammates -- you don’t have to carry the team every single night."
Judge noted that the Yanks have other potential free agents aside from Soto on this year’s team and that he’ll provide that same support to them all, and reiterated how important his teammates were in his decision to stay.
"It may not be your night tonight, but we’re going to pick you up … You’ll have eight other guys behind you to help you out," Judge added. "Just having that type of confidence coming from your teammates is the biggest thing."
The Yankees gave up a lot of capital to acquire Soto, but it's impossible to deny the team has improved with the lefty in the lineup.
"He's a generational talent. What he brings to the game in that box, he has such a great demeanor. the swagger, the focus. Every single pitch he's prepared," Judge said of Soto. "Some of those takes he has, I feel like he's so prepared he's reading what the pitcher is going to throw and taking the ball out of his glove... It's impressive."
The Yankees hope Soto is the missing piece to get them to their first World Series since 2009. It would be Judge's first World Series -- Soto's second -- and it couldn't hurt the Yankees' standing by getting that far.
When Judge entered free agency, he had parts of seven seasons in pinstripes to get a feel of whether he’d want to stay. Soto will have just one.
Soto has said this spring that he's not thinking about a potential contract extension right now. Despite that, the Yankees captain will do what he can to convince Soto to re-sign in the short time they are together as teammates, but believes it’s also up to the Bronx faithful to do their part when the season starts.
"The fans when we show up April 5 will do a lot of convincing, too. I think we’ll be good," Judge said.
