Yankees News: Juan Soto trade revelation, Aaron Judge HR, Fritz Peterson death

The New York Yankees are traveling to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays for a three-game set after notching a series win against the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend. But we'll take a break from game action to provide fans with a quick news roundup on Monday morning.

Starting with Juan Soto, who's completely changed this Yankees team, MLB insider Jon Heyman recently revealed more about those trade talks with the San Diego Padres during the offseason.

As Brian Cashman previously noted, the Yankees and Pads discussed many different permutations before landing on the Michael King, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe and Kyle Higashioka for Soto and Trent Grisham swap.

According to Heyman, which we didn't know previously (but probably could have guessed), the Padres were interested in as many as 17 different Yankees players, which included Clarke Schmidt, Chase Hampton, Spencer Jones, Roderick Arias and George Lombard Jr., among others.

As fans know, Jones was held out of every trade discussion this past offseason. The Brewers and White Sox wanted him in any deal for Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease, and then, of course, settled on lesser packages from other teams. But man, how did the Yankees escape the Soto deal by giving up so little? Hat tip to Cashman for holding strong (or, we guess Omar Minaya, who talked with Padres exec AJ Preller at the GM Meetings).

Yankees News: Juan Soto trade revelation, Aaron Judge HR, Fritz Peterson death

Soto kept rocking and rolling over the weekend, which has helped Aaron Judge slowly break out of his early-season slump. Judge homered in Sunday's unfortunate loss and collected four hits (three of which were extra bases) across the series.

But his mammoth 450-foot three-run homer on Sunday was a vintage Judge blast that may have indicated his swing is back on track. Not only that, but the homer tied Derek Jeter on the Yankees all-time list. It was No. 260, which is hard to believe because it seems Judge has gotten there so effortlessly.

Imagine if he hadn't missed so much time in 2018, 2019 and 2023? He'd be well past 300 by now and more so on track for Hall of Fame numbers.

Before the series against the Guardians even began, though, the Yankees community learned of a loss they mourned the next few days. Former Yankee Fritz Peterson passed away at the age of 82 on Thursday, with the news being revealed on Friday.

Peterson, perhaps best known for swapping wives (literally) with teammate Mike Kekich in 1973 in one of the bigger baseball oddities ever, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's back in 2017, though no cause for his death was revealed.

Peterson played in 11 big league seasons -- nine of which came in New York. He won 20 games and earned an All-Star nod in 1970, and also pitched more than 250 innings in a single season four times from 1969-1972, which was his best run in MLB.

The Yankees made an announcement honoring Peterson and then included a short segment on the YES Network during Saturday's pregame coverage.