Life without Juan Soto Could Benefit Yankees
Yankees Busy Off-season Has Bombers Back on Track
The New York Yankees have been anything but quiet since Juan Soto decided he was going to leave for the New York Mets.
The Yankees had a grade-A pivot plan in place if they were going to lose Soto, and up until this point, it has been a great success. The Yankees haven’t had an off-season where they have made moves of this magnitude in a long time.
The Yankees got a taste of the World Series for the first time in 15 years, and General Manager Brian Cashman seems eager to get back to the Series.
The Yankees wasted no time, signing Max Fried nearly 48 hours after learning Soto intended to sign with the Mets.
Shortly after the Fried signing, the Bombers acquired closer Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers in a blockbuster room. This was a move that the Yankees desperately needed to make, a Yankees team with an elite closer just feels right.
The Yankees also traded catcher Jose Trevino for reliever Fernando Cruz and catcher Alez Jackson. Cruz has a filthy splitter, and the Yankees may be able to turn the high strike rate into an elite weapon in their bullpen. A plus add for the Yankees.
The big question for the New York Yankees was how are they going to fill the whole Soto left plus improve at both corner infield positions. Well, the Yankees went out and added two former MVPs to the lineup.
Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt are not the MVPs they once were, but they are more than capable of producing runs and are both plus fielders.
Goldschmidt, 37, is certainly on the downside of his career, but after a solid second half of the year last year, the Yankees were willing to give the former 2022 MVP a shot on a straight-up one-year deal with no options. “Goldy” is going to provide leadership, and great fielding, and add fundamental baseball to a team that lacked a ton of it last year. Expect Goldschmidt to hit 20-25 homers, knock in 75 runs, and hit .260. It also wouldn’t come as a surprise to see him exceed these numbers on a winning team.
Bellinger is only 29, and the former MVP is coming off of a two-year stretch where he hit over .300 in 2023 and .267 in 2024. Bellinger’s power numbers have slipped since his MVP season where he hit 47 homers but in Yankee stadium and being back on a competitive team with a chip on his shoulder reaching that 40-homer mark is certainly not out of the question.
The Yankees aren’t done adding as they have a hole at third base, and potentially second base depending on what they decide to do with Chisholm, and even the outfield if they deem Dominguez not ready this spring.
With names still out there like Teascar Hernandez, Alex Bregman, and Nolan Arenado who can be acquired via trade, the Yankees figure to land at least one of those three players.
If the Yankees can finish the off-season by adding one of these players named here this off-season was a massive win for the team, and they will be a much better team heading into this season than they were last year.
