The Yankees need Juan Soto and a lot more this offseason – Saratogian

NEW YORK – We know what Plan A is for the New York Yankees as they not only look to get back to the World Series, but also find a way to beat baseball’s new evil empire – the Los Angeles Dodgers – if The Dodgers somehow wait there for the Yankees next time. Plan A is Juan Soto, as it is the same for Uncle Steve and the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox, who in many ways need Soto even more than the Yankees or the Mets.

But Soto is once again the guy the Yankees need to have, the guy who wanted to get them back on top this season until he couldn’t. Gerrit Cole would once be the difference maker, the ace that would put them back on top until he didn’t. Then came Soto after the Yankees managed to keep Aaron Judge in pinstripes. And it might have worked the way the Yankees dreamed if Freddie Freeman hadn’t hauled Nestor Cortes out of Dodger Stadium at the end of Game 1.

It might have worked, even though the Dodgers were clearly the better team. But that doesn’t mean the Yankees didn’t do something great by advancing to their first World Series in 15 years. We only saw what happened to them in five games when they stopped playing the AL Central and moved up the division.

Now, a year after they acquired Soto from the Padres, Soto is once again their one and only, the one they can’t imagine playing without next season.

But what’s the plan after they catch him? What’s the plan if they don’t get him, knowing that getting out of the American League next season may not be as easy as it just was?

In any case, in sports you can only play against who you are playing against. After all that, tell me when you think the Yankees will ever get a dream draw to get them into the Series like the Royals first and then the Guardians. The only amazing thing, really, is that their run last October didn’t feature a perennial scapegoat like the Twins.

Obviously, there are moves Brian Cashman is waiting to make once Soto decides whether he wants to return to the Yankees, or go across town to play for the Mets, or go to Boston and see if he can be the new David Ortiz could be the Red Sox, or even join Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts and Freeman on the Evil Empire Dodgers.

But there will definitely be many steps. Keeping the score at home means the Yankees don’t have a real starting point for next season, nor do they have a journeyman like Luke Weaver, who pitched for them down the stretch. They don’t have a first baseman, they won’t have a second baseman if Gleyber Torres leaves, and the third baseman they finished the season with, the talkative Jazz Chisholm, isn’t even a third baseman.

Judge is an adequate midfielder and nothing more. Soto, when he comes back, is a mediocre right fielder and nothing more. And if you know for sure who the left fielder will be next season, please let us know. The reality for the Yankees is that there’s still a lot of work to do if they truly believe they can do the whole World Series thing again; if they think the series is their thing again.

Again: Two AL Central teams heading to the ’24 Series. They didn’t have to play in October against the team that was always their bugbear, the Astros, who were upset by the Tigers in the wild card round. The Orioles, because of all their pitching injuries and second-half collapse, have done everything but get a bow in the AL East. Were the Yankees the best team in the league? They were one hundred percent. Then they didn’t get as many games from the Dodgers as the Mets did.

They did a lot of good work last season as Judge and Soto became a modern version of Ruth and Gehrig or Maris and Mantle. They endured a really miserable period in the middle rounds where they only managed to win 10 of 33 games, but somehow they got through it. They survived Cole’s absence until mid-June. And I still made it to the end of October. And you better believe Yankee fans will be wondering all winter how things would have gone in the World Series, even though the Dodgers were clearly better if Aaron Boone had hired someone other than Cortes to pitch to Freeman after that Bases juiced in the 10th inning of Game 1.

But Boone brought Cortes with him. Freeman did what he did. Judge didn’t catch the ball in Game 5 and Cole didn’t cover first and… well, Yankee fans know the rest like they know their stage names.

Now, with or without Juan Soto, Cashman will need to do better in reinforcements than he did last season and at the trade deadline than his bullpen. If you’re keeping score at home, other than Weaver, here are the Yankees’ pitching additions last season: Marcus Stroman, Victor Gonzalez, Caleb Ferguson, Mark Leiter, Enyel De Los Santos, Lou Trivino.

The Yankees need more, a lot more, in 2025, and this time they’re simply not looking for pitchers, but rather three-quarters of an infield if Torres leaves and two-thirds of their outfield if Soto takes a pass at the end of Hal Steinbrenner’s money . Of course they will be a playoff team again. They are almost always a playoff team.

They still have a lot of work to do, with or without Soto. It’s been a long time since anyone in baseball viewed the Yankees as the evil empire. This ship sailed a long time ago. Now, for all intents and purposes, it’s the Dodgers, with the money they’re spending and the money they’re deferring, and with more stars on their team than the Yankees, and it looks like they’ll continue to put their foot down.

It was the late Larry Lucchino, a truly great baseball player who put the Red Sox on the path to winning more World Series this century, who called the Yankees the evil empire for signing a Cuban pitcher named Jose Contreras. It’s been more than 20 years, and the Yankees were still scaring everyone every time they made a move and once again splashing money on the rest of the sport. Boy, those were the days. Since Lucchino came up with the nickname, the Yankees have won a World Series.

Originally published: November 30, 2024 at 2:20 pm EST