The Yankees have built plenty of respectable teams around Aaron Judge. They have a promising wave of young talent, a rotation loaded with money and quality, and a bullpen that somehow keeps surviving no matter how shaky it looks at first glance.
Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler are part of the future. George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones are waiting behind them.
Judge, meanwhile, will be back next season after his injury, another year deeper into the back half of his prime, if he isn’t already there.
But the roster’s biggest problem stays the same: the Yankees need a true second star next to Judge, and they know it.
That is why they went after Giancarlo Stanton in 2018 instead of waiting for Bryce Harper or Manny Machado. It is also why they gave up so much pitching depth six years later to land Juan Soto for one season, hoping that year would be enough to convince him to stay. If that failed, they could at least hope Steve Cohen would stay out of the way, or that a World Series title would soften the blow if Soto left.
None of that worked out the way they wanted. Cohen pushed hard.
Soto liked his time in New York, and still does, but not enough to stay. And on October 19, 2024, the Yankees hit the high point of the Soto era, the kind of night that now stands out even more because it never led to anything lasting.
May we once again re-introduce, The Generational, Juan Soto. pic.twitter.com/6R5fWpEg6I
- New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 20, 2024
That date still hangs over everything, especially with the 2024 version of Stanton mashing, too. Back then, it really did feel like the year.
A lot of Yankee fans have not moved on from Soto, and it is not hard to understand why. This is not just about missing the player, though that is part of it.
It is about what might have been. It is about watching Judge have his only World Series to date go badly against a Dodgers staff that was hanging on by a thread until the Yankees fell behind 3-0.
It is about the sense that the post-Soto fallback plan was good enough to keep the team relevant, but not good enough to finish the job.
Bellinger is not Soto. Fried cannot carry the offense.
Williams is now somebody else’s issue. Those are the kinds of reminders that keep October 19, 2024 alive in the minds of Yankee fans, especially the younger ones who have not lived through the older championship eras.
The point is not really that the Yankees should still have Soto’s contract. It is that the moment he delivered with Judge at his side felt like it could be the start of something bigger. Instead, it became the last great snapshot before the slide back into frustration.
The old Yankees used to win without needing one offensive superstar, never mind two. This version could try that route, but it would take almost everything going right at once. The easier path is the obvious one: build around two great hitters.
They have done it before with Judge. It peaked on that October night two years ago.
And maybe there is no clean way back to it now. That is why the Yankees still have not stopped thinking about Soto.
They have had other moments since then, some even good ones, but nothing that has made fans forget what that one felt like.
In Other News...
Yankees Could Move On From Jazz For A Very Different Bat
The Yankees quick exit against the Rays has pushed their offseason questions to the front of the line, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. is right in the middle of them. He would prefer to stay in New York, but after an October that exposed problems both at the plate and in the field, it is far from certain the front office will bring him back.
One alternative that has surfaced is Luis Arraez, a far different kind of hitter and one who would change the look of the lineup in a more contact-oriented direction. Analyst Joe Najarian floated that possibility as the Yankees weigh whether to double down on Chisholm or pivot to a player with a steadier track record, multiple All-Star nods and a shelf full of Silver Slugger hardware. [Read more 🡒]
Austin Wells' First Half Collapse Finally Has A Yankees Explanation
Austin Wells first-half slump had plenty of people searching for answers, and the explanation eventually came into focus in a way that had nothing to do with swing mechanics or a mechanical reset. The Yankees catcher dealt with cervical headaches after taking multiple foul tips off his mask, a problem that helped explain why his offense dipped so sharply before things started to turn around later in the season. He passed concussion tests along the way, but the underlying issue still lingered long enough to make his early stretch at the plate look far more troubling than it may have appeared from the outside.
Wells second-half improvement gave the Yankees reason to believe the downturn was temporary, not a sign of a lost bat. Even with the offensive concerns, the club values what he brings behind the plate, especially his defensive work and the way he helps the pitching staff, and plans to keep him in the mix. For a team that has spent plenty of time sorting through the details of why players struggle, this is one case where the bigger picture still points to a catcher worth building around. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Fans May Not Like Where This Yankees Bullpen Talk Is Going
The Yankees are already staring at a bullpen reshuffle coming in 2027, with six relievers set to hit free agency, including closer David Bednar. For a relief corps that can change quickly from one season to the next, that kind of turnover gives the front office little choice but to start mapping out its options well in advance, and Bednar stands out as the most important name in the group because New York can still try to keep him around with a qualifying offer.
If Bednar winds up elsewhere, the bullpen market could get interesting in a hurry, and the names being discussed reflect that. Mason Miller is one possibility, but Trevor Megill is the one that should catch Brewers fans attention most, since the Milwaukee closer could become a trade candidate before reaching free agency in 2028. For the Yankees, it is the sort of contingency planning that makes sense on paper, even if it means keeping one eye on a division rivals bullpen. [Read more 🡒]