Juan Soto angers Yankees fans with vision of future at All-Star Workout Day

After Sunday's ghastly Yankees loss to the Orioles, which turned a series win into an Anthony Volpe/Alex Verdugo/Clay Holmes hate-fest that overshadowed objective reality, fans were begging for a legitimate break during the All-Star festivities.

Unfortunately, Juan Soto gave the Drama Sharks more chum on Monday afternoon during All-Star Workout Day.

Soto, whose job it is to obtain as much money as possible as a free agent this offseason, knows how to play the game. He won't tip his hand as to his next destination -- unless tipping his hand allows him to play a few teams off one another. He won't agree in-season with the Yankees despite developing a bromance with Aaron Judge. He also won't give the Yankees the benefit of comfort of any kind.

Soto's going to get paid. On Monday, though, he opened up the possibility that those payments might be somewhat deferred. When asked which MLB stars he'd want to play with, he floated Shohei Ohtani. There's only one way to do that. The Dodgers aren't entertaining trade rumors anytime soon.

Yankees' Juan Soto wants to play with Shohei Ohtani after free agency

GM Aaron Judge has enough power to bring in Alex Verdugo, but I don't think he'd be able to pull this one off. Could be a problem.

Now, if you'd like to be generous, there was a whiff of good news in Soto's answer. He noted that Ohtani went to the NL, and he went to the AL, making it tougher for the two of them to team up. Was he hinting that ... perhaps he went to the AL ... permanently?

Soto should make his home in New York long-term, and if the Yankees have any designs on running a championship operation, they should make sure he signs on with them instead of the Grimace Bunch in Queens. Then, after securing Soto, they should keep building, surrounding him and Judge with players befitting of the pinstripes rather than spare parts.

There are plenty of answers Soto could've picked about ideal future teammates. It's the Yankees' job to bring in a steady stream of top-quality dream players, even if Ohtani's theoretically off the board.

Of course ... if Ohtani's not off the board ... then we have an actual issue. Soto was connected to the Dodgers via tradewinds strongly before he ever went to the Padres. It felt like a natural fit in 2022. It's now Brian Cashman's job to make it as unnatural as possible now that Soto has placed the ball back in his court during the All-Star shenanigans.