Yankees’ Juan Soto-Aaron Judge pairing brings back balance

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. The philosophy was to pair two mammoth hitters and dare the sport to figure out a way to face them 10 times a game without incurring offensive harm.

The Yankees had failed in their bid to land free agent Shohei Ohtani, six years ago this month. They responded by acquiring Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins.

That paired Stanton with Aaron Judge. The towering combo hit 59 and 52 homers respectively in 2017 after no player had reached 50 from 2014-16, and no righty had done it since 2010.

But, in a way, Stanton became a linchpin of the steady decline of a Yankees positional group that became too righty, too strikeout-prone, too unathletic and too injury-touched.

So with Ohtani a free agent once again uninterested in The Bronx the Yankees made a deal to form another Big Two that anchors a plan to be more diverse. Wednesday night, the Yankees completed a deal to obtain Soto and Trent Grisham for a boatload of pitching plus Kyle Higashioka.

Soto was the center of the Yankees plan to rebound from a season in which they ranked 25th in runs per game. Over the past three seasons, Judge leads the majors in offensive Wins Above Replacement (20.2) and Soto is second (18.7). With the deal with San Diego finalized, Aaron Boone almost certainly will hit them 2-3 in the order and dare opposing teams to navigate this duo 10times a game.

Yankees_Juan_Soto_Aaron_Judge_pairing_brings_back_balance Juan Soto’s offensive abilities would pair nicely with Aaron Judge’s. Getty ImagesBut there is more than that in total. Grisham is in the deal and on Tuesday the Yankees obtained Alex Verdugo from Boston. Brian Cashman had said he wanted to obtain two outfielders, preferably lefty-hitters. He has nabbed three.

The Yanks last season ranked 29th in plate appearances by lefty hitters and 28th in weighted Runs Created-plus from that side. Stanton was central to the predominance of righty hitting. Since his arrival for the 2018 campaign, the Yanks have been in the bottom nine every season in plate appearances by lefties and just once keyed by nine aberrational weeks in 2022 from Matt Carpenter have the Yankees finished with a positive wRC-plus from the left side.

Soto is on the short list for best lefties in the game, Verdugo is productive and Grisham offers a Joey Gallo-lite profile of some power, speed, low batting average and too many strikeouts.

The Yanks can return to a balance with four lefties reglarly part of the starting lineup Soto, Verdugo, Anthony Rizzo and Austin Wells; and when desired, Grisham. In the wings is switch-hitter Jasson Dominguez recovering after Tommy John surgery and possibly Trey Sweeney sometime next season and Spencer Jones in 2025.

Soto and Verdugo also limit strikeouts. Among qualified hitters, Soto led the majors in walk percentage at 18.6 percent. Alex Bregman was the only other player in the top 25 in that category who had a lower strikeout rate (Sotos was 18.2) than walk rate. Verdugo, Yandy Diaz, Jose Ramirez and Kyle Tucker are the only players with at least 500 plate appearances and a 16 percent or lower strikeout percentage in each of the last three seasons.

Yankees_Juan_Soto_Aaron_Judge_pairing_brings_back_balance Judge led MLB with a 20.2 offensive WAR, with Soto right behind him at No. 2. Jason Szenes/New York PostThe Yanks could have a lineup with Soto, Verdugo and Gleyber Torres with well below average strikeout rates plus Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu, who were hard to whiff guys before last season.

Defensively, Soto is well below average and Judges skills are lesser in center than right. But Grisham is a superb center fielder and if the Yankees get to a familiar point with Stanton on the IL (hat tip to Brian Cashman), the Yankees could line up left to right with a terrific fielding trio of Verdugo, Grisham and Judge and Soto DH-ing.

But the biggest element of all is getting another 650-plus plate appearances of Soto in conjunction with Judge. Soto is a historic player through his age-24 season and that was enough despite a projected $33 million-ish 2024 salary and just one year until free agency for the Yanks to surrender Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vazquez plus Higashioka.

It all expressed why the Yanks were the ideal partner for San Diego. The Padres desperately needed to get out from under some money (Grisham is due about $5 million) and add pitching and catching. The Yanks had payroll willingness and depth in those two areas. Losing King is particularly painful because he had No. 2 starter upside if healthy. But he is two years from free agency and has an injury history. The depth loss also hurts and applies pressure on the Yanks to try to land their top pitching target, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, plus fill in with other pieces such as perhaps Cuban-by-way-of-Japan righty Yariel Hernandez.

But the allure of Soto, especially when teamed with Judge, was impossible for the Yanks to pass on as they try to distance themselves from the ugly narratives of 2023. They are trying a dynamic duo again. This time doing it with the old left-right combo.

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