Anniversary of Juan Soto's moment for the ages reinforces Yankees' universal truth

The New York Yankees possess an array of young talent, led by Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler, with George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones waiting in the wings. They employ a high-priced and still effective starting rotation that reinforces their championship aspirations. Their bullpen may not impress you on paper, but somehow they always manage to piece it together.

Next season, Aaron Judge, the greatest right-handed hitter of his generation, will return from injury, one year closer to his post-prime, if not there already. The Yankees are incredibly lucky to have Judge on their roster in whatever capacity he's able to contribute. But without a 1A wingman, the Yankees are highly unlikely to attain the championship they seek.

And the worst part is the front office knows that.

That's why they obtained Giancarlo Stanton in the first place back in 2018, succumbing to Miami's discount rather than waiting an additional year for a less redundant running mate in Bryce Harper or Manny Machado (why not both?).

That's why they significantly depleted their pitching depth six years later in exchange for one year of Juan Soto. What would come at the end of that season? They were hoping the singular campaign would make such an impression on Soto that he'd prefer the Yankees' offer in free agency, no matter the parameters. They were hoping that maybe Mets head honcho Steve Cohen would continue to live by the unspoken cold war creed that seemed to have prevented interference from within the city on Judge's contract. Failing either of those things, they were hoping that a World Series ring at the end of the season would mute the sting of Soto's departure.

Instead, they got tantalizingly close to the third, though the whole plan disintegrated fairly quickly once the curtain rose. The first two never came to pass - Cohen pushed hard, and Soto seemed to love his time with the Yankees (still does, actually), but not enough to change his decision. And two years ago, on October 19, 2024, the peak of both Soto's minuscule era and the Yankee fandom of anyone under 23 years old took place. The moment still serves as a stark reminder that, given all the contractual obligations in play and the realities of aging, the Yankees may never - will never, most likely - win a championship with Judge until they take a third bite at pairing him with an established demi-God like Soto.

And that doesn't even take into account that Stanton, too, was playing like a house afire back in 2024, which now feels like an impossibly shimmering vision. That was the year. That was very clearly the year.

Aaron Judge isn't blameless in necessity of Yankees finding him a new Juan Soto

It's easy enough to think of 2024 while watching a Yankees-less postseason field - Guardians and Rays, Brewers dispatching the Dodgers - and realize that this year's path would've been a golden opportunity to try your luck against the non-super team, too. Add on the significance of Oct. 19, and it's no wonder that some Yankee fans struggle to move on from Soto's sole season.

It's not an attachment to the player, per se (though obviously some of the pining is Soto-specific). Mets fans can point and laugh all they want about the supposed obsession with a guy who spent one year there and chose to leave, but there's a difference between the digging and the disbelief. If you want to pick at a Yankee fan's pain point, that's your prerogative. But there are some Mets fans out there who genuinely claim not to get why Yankee fans still think about him. Really?

It's because Judge himself struggled offensively in his only World Series to date against a Dodgers pitching staff running on fumes (until the Yankees were down 3-0). It's because it eats us alive the same way it almost certainly eats him up in private. It's because the Yankees' post-Soto Plan B was an excellent blueprint for remaining in contention, but not getting over the hump. It's because Cody Bellinger will never be Juan Soto, and Max Fried can't hit for himself (and Devin Williams shouldn't exist and is Mets fans' problem now).

And it's because even the fans who watched the dynasty Yankees and '09 behemoths are getting pretty sick of explaining to an entire generation that this franchise used to matter, and Oct. 19, 2024 is now pretty plainly the last moment before they tumbled back into purgatory.

It's not even that we really wish the Yankees still had Soto's insanely burdensome contract on the books. We just wish that this moment could've lasted forever or bled into something better.

The '90s Yankees used to win without one offensive superstar, let alone two. The Yankees could try that, too. They could build an offense without holes, where players one-through-nine play above their heads, fueled by the power of teamwork in a weakened league. But that's magical and nearly impossible. Centering a lineup around two offensive forces is a much simpler shortcut.

And the Yankees, under Aaron Judge, have done it once. And it culminated on this day two years back. And it may be too late to try it again. That's why we're still thinking about it. They've given us plenty of distractions and even some joy since then, but they haven't given us any real reason to move on.

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