Stop trying to make Juan Soto the villain you love to hate

Everyone needs to get over Juan Soto not returning to the Yankees

If you’re still crying in your soup over Juan Soto not returning to the Bronx you can’t tell me you don’t have better things to do. And this is coming from a Yankee fan. I have no problem whatsoever about Juan Soto walking in free agency. It’s such a constant of pro sports today. Juan Soto came to the Yankees in a trade. It wasn’t even his choice to come to the Bronx. He was under contract for one year. There was absolutely no guarantee that he would return post the 2024 season. And after the season he tested the free agency waters. That’s what they all do. As loyal as Aaron Judge is after 2022, he tested the waters and chose to stay with the Yankees but that is just a prime example of a pro athlete in 2025. These rookie contracts or short-term deals are promise rings not engagement rings.

Juan Soto never mislead the fanbase. He never made any of those fraudulent statements proclaiming he wanted to be a Yankee for life. Throughout the 2024 season when reporters would ask him where he planned on being in 2025, he usually would say whichever is a fit for me or something to that nature. Now if you are delusional apparently that means signing a 10-year extension with the Yankees but returning to the Yankees certainly is not in the context of that proclamation. He NEVER once said he planned to return to the Yankees in 2025. So therefore, that is not any lack of loyalty. It’s called taking your career elsewhere. Towards the seasons end last year we knew it was a 60-40 that Soto would not return. So, you should have prepared yourself for that strong possibility.

People are complaining because last year he was great to the fans then decided to jump ship. Especially those bleacher creatures who clearly lack rationalization and only enjoy heckling the opposing team’s right fielder with vulgarity obscenities, threatening their family, and are only happy when they get a chance to complain. They epitomize the stereotype of the negative ill-mannered New Yorker. Others have said how all season he said how much he likes the organization and how proud he is to be a Yankee and fans feel that was fraudulent and unjust. Think about this if you started a new job, would you tell your boss that you hate this company and that you don’t want to be here? Didn’t think so. Even if he didn’t like the Yankees organization and being a Yankee that much, he still has to say positive things about the organization while employed by them. Juan Soto was a one-year rental. Are you not over your summer fling with the girl from out of town? The bleacher creatures during the Subway Series in May literally had their backs turned to him as he came out to rightfield and flipped him off. Like a bunch of callow youths, they chanted %&%# Juan Soto using as much vulgarity as they could and sounded like prepubescent middle schoolers in a seventh-grade cafeteria. There even are t-shirts sold on River Avenue at the vendors outside the stadium that say %&%# Juan Soto. GROW UP! This is juvenile! Again, this is all coming from a Yankee fan.

The only reason Yankee fans are mad that Juan Soto didn’t return is because he’s wearing the blue and orange. That’s absurd. There is NO RIVALRY between the Yankees and Mets. Just like the Giants and Jets they play in separate conferences and have nothing to do with each other. It’s just about bragging rights for the fans. Now, if Soto went to the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees insidious hated rival or even the Toronto Blue Jays that would be a big problem. Those are division opponents that the Yanks duke it out with all year. The Yankees lost a bidding war to the Mets. There are greater tragedies in life. And for the first time since the year 1962 the Mets beat the Yankees at something. Good for them. Let the little brother have some joy for a change. If you really want to cast blame don’t put it on the right fielder, put it on Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman for dropping the ball on this. They could have easily woo’d him. Whether it was getting him a free suite at the stadium for his family or giving his family a free years supply at NYY Steak. I can probably thing of 6 or 7 other examples. If George Steinbrenner were alive, he would do everything in his power to make it happen but Hapless Hal just doesn’t care nor does he have a tenth of the passion that his father had. Hal and Brian are the guilty party for Soto’s departure.

I believe that the Yankees are cold to some of their players and unappreciative. I don’t believe they shake their hand at the end of the day and say thank you. I also believe part of it was when Juan Soto arrived to the Yankees, he realized that this “Yankee way” of the pristine tradition of excellence is not what he had envisioned. The standards amongst the organization have mightily fallen under Hal’s leadership. The team no longer revolves around rings and not being champions every single year is completely acceptable today. So, I believe Soto saw that the Yankees mystique and aura he heard about is not there. I don’t think he hated playing for the Yankees but I think he was disappointed in how the most successful franchise in pro sports is run now and that was a turn off. Proof of the low standards is that the Yankees were willing to give Juan Soto $760 mill for 16 years but they failed to reel him in then claimed they didn’t have much money to spend. I believe Steve Cohen’s warm embrace and his welcoming presentation was a lot more appealing and that had something to do with it. Is the exorbitant contract that Juan Soto signed with the Mets lunacy? Of course, it is but the Yankees were willing to give him close to the same thing.

I do know that Soto is a bit of a show boat and uses those idiosyncratic unnecessary celebrations where he forgets that it’s a baseball diamond not a discotheque but so do most in the game today. Most lack humility and respect for the game. But all are not a good enough reason to hate him and neither is deciding to play in a team that coincidentally plays in the same city as your team. Another reason he jumped ship probably is because he wanted to be “the guy” with the Mets. He was the Robin to Aaron Judge’s Batman with the Yankees. Last year the Yankees had two good hitters. Soto and Judge. Soto along with his counterpart carried the team all year. In the playoffs Judge went stone cold and did absolutely nothing but Soto pounded the cover off the ball along with Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres. It was those three hitters that provided the offense all postseason and Juan Soto hit a titanic blast in Cleveland in game 5 of the ALCS. A three-run home run that put the Yankees ahead in the tenth inning en route to the American League championship.

He was a key component to last year’s AL pennant and that’s the thanks he gets. He along with the help of a couple others singlehandedly won a pennant for the Yankees. Did everyone forget that? Maybe, maybe not but they certainly enjoy animosity and frivolous complaining. I hate to break it to you but Juan Soto is not the villain you love to hate and the only thing that stays the same in life is that things will always change.