Juan Soto imagined as a New York Yankee, which is soon to be a reality. Photo courtesy of The New York Post
The New York Yankees have acquired superstar “Jon Soto.”
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Yankees took a jab at MLB reporter Jon Heyman. You may recall Heyman’s infamous “Arson Judge appears headed to Giants” tweet about a year ago, which lit the sports internet on fire (no pun intended).
Arson Judge
During the 2022 Winter Meetings, when Aaron Judge was a free agent, Heyman was in such a rush to be the first to break any news that he erroneously tweeted that a deal between Judge and the San Francisco Giants was pending, spelling his name wrong in the process. That news ended up being false as Judge re-signed with the Yankees on a nine-year, $360 million contract. And now in 2023, after the Yankees traded for Juan Soto, the team trolled this incident with a post of their own.
The post, which reads “Jon Soto appears headed to Yankees,” is an obvious roast of Jon Heyman’s ill-fated and now deleted Arson Judge tweet. The post received over 45,000 likes, and also came on the one-year anniversary of Heyman’s tweet. Regardless, the post offers some light-hearted fun from what is usually a corporate and dry social media account.
Trade Details
Yes, in case you missed it, Juan Soto is now a Yankee. One of the most talented superstars of this generation, an absolute beast of a baseball player, can now call The Bronx his home (at least for one year). The deal, which went down the other night, sent Soto and Trent Grisham to New York in exchange for five players: pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito, and Randy Vásquez, along with veteran catcher Kyle Higashioka. The Padres will free up about $38 million from this move, which is much needed in their current financial situation.
“It’s very difficult to make a deal where you’re trading a player the caliber of Juan Soto,” Padres GM A.J. Preller said. “But if we did that, we wanted to make sure we shored up a bunch of needs. We were able to get some depth with quality.”
The only caveat to the deal is that it is only for one year. Soto will become a free agent after the 2024 season, and since Scott Boras is his agent, it is extremely unlikely that any extensions will occur. Thus, this move signifies that the Yankees are all in on 2024 after an abysmal 2023 season.
