Yankees hype video twists the Juan Soto knife one more time with perfect Plan B nod

It's difficult to believe that the New York Yankees finished with the exact same record in 2025, powered by almost the exact same offense, as they did when Juan Soto was protected by Aaron Judge last season. Year 1 of Soto's long-term bet that the Mets had better title chances than the fading Yankees: not fantastic!

Plenty of people giggled and chortled at Yankee fans who claimed their scrambled "Plan B" post-Soto would end up outperforming the roster with Soto by spreading the money around — and we get it. Chortling is fun. Giggling in the Yankees' general direction: we'd do it, too, if we weren't their fans!

But, at the end of the day ... those fans were pretty much spot-on! Cody Bellinger was a flexible godsend, especially against left-handed pitching. Max Fried, the September Pitcher of the Month, turned in an astounding first season in pinstripes. Trent Grisham hit 34 tanks as his playing time increased. Even Devin Williams finished the summer strong.

And Soto? His Mets collapsed emphatically, and were missing something imperceptible all summer. Who ... can put ... their finger on what changed there, year-over-year? I guess we'll never know.

At the 52-second mark of their playoff hype video, the Yankees hazarded a guess, using a clip of Fried striking out Soto to fuel the fire ahead of October.

Yankees' Plan B has helped carry them into 2025 MLB Playoffs hype video after Juan Soto's departure

Both Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt made their voices heard offensively in the particular game the Yankees clipped for that video (and Fried put Soto to bed, too). If you thought that moment was going to be forgotten just because the Mets fell out of the bracket entirely, you thought wrong.

If the Yankees are going to overcome their real rival in the Boston Red Sox this week, they'll need to embrace change once more and turn the tides on a team that has tormented them for decades now. Perhaps the lineup balance/renewed rotation they were able to build in Soto's wake will carry them past that familiar enemy as well.

Unfortunately, Boston didn't make it quite so easy by collapsing out of the postseason entirely, but beggars can't be choosers.