Juan Soto is officially a New York Met, and on Thursday, he had his first press conference with the team and media. Of course, everyone is trying to understand why he decided to take the Subway across town and leave the Yankees for the Mets.
The money was never the issue here since the Yankees came close to the same number that Soto got, and if he were serious about winning, staying in the Bronx would be the best option since they just went to the World Series and are in wide-open American League.
It seems like what was going on in the New York Yankees clubhouse was one of the main factors why Juan Soto wanted out. During his New York Mets press conference, a reporter asked him if he had spoken to any of his former Yankee teammates since going to the Mets, and the star outfielder pretty much said he hadn’t spoken to any of them since they left the field after the end of Game Five of the World Series.
There are a few things to look at and it goes both ways. Did Soto try to avoid all his teammates because he didn’t want them to try to pressure him into staying? Did he not like his teammates, or did the teammates not like him?
I’m assuming Soto didn’t have great feelings with any Yankees, and it would make sense since he was only part of the team for one season and the entire time he was playing for a contract, so there is a chance he tried to stay away from his teammates as much as possible.
If you were about to make over 700 million dollars, in a year, would you want to get close to people you don’t know who could change your feelings about your situation and take less money or a worse deal because you made new friends?
Soto was doing everything he could to keep his head down, work, and ensure his game didn’t fall off. He couldn’t care about friendships, so he didn’t speak to anyone after the World Series because he had no friends there in the first place.
I find it hard to believe that it’s the other way around that the Yankees players choose not to talk to a once-in-a-lifetime player during his free agency period; there are over 25 players on the active roster, and there is no way all of them gave him the cold shoulder.
Juan Soto was never returning to the Bronx, and it seems like the Yankees might’ve dodged a bullet by not signing him. Why would you want a guy who doesn’t talk to any of his teammates during the off-season?
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