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Juan Soto continues to be one of the best players in all of Major League Baseball as he is locked into the second spot of the New York Yankees lineup ahead of Aaron Judge. However, he has done something that is incredible as he now has a career-high 40 home runs after hitting a two-run home run in the fourth inning against the Seattle Mariners and pitcher Bryan Woo. Let's take a deeper dive into exactly what makes this home run special.

Juan Soto now has done things others dream about

Juan Soto hitting his 40th home run of the 2024 season is impressive in its own right, as he is one of four hitters to reach that number (Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander) as of this writing. However, this home run did a lot more than just add two more runs to the New York Yankees' lead. That homer was the 200th of Soto's career and the 25-year-old became just the eighth player in MLB history to reach that number before turning 26 years of age. Below are the other players to reach this number and how many home runs they hit before their 26th birthday:

• Jimmie Foxx: 222
• Eddie Matthews: 222
• Alex Rodriguez: 216
• Mel Ott: 211
• Mickey Mantle: 207
• Frank Robinson: 200

Surprisingly, that still is not the only magic of this home run on a late Tuesday night game on the West Coast. T-Mobile Park was the only active stadium where Juan Soto has not hit a home run in his career. This home run also makes Juan Soto and Aaron Judge the first pair of New York Yankees to hit 40+ home runs in a season since Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in the historic 1961 season. This is something that makes his price tag in free agency at the end of the season.

What does this mean for the New York Yankees going forward?

Juan Soto has been cooling off a bit at the plate as in the month of September, he had a .216 batting average (11-for-51) prior to this game. Obviously, Juan Soto and Judge are going to draw walks and make the opposing pitcher work on the mound. With the team getting healthy and players like Giancarlo Stanton, Austin Wells, and Jazz Chisholm Jr behind them, the lineup is made more circular and potent because the former World Series Champion is penciled into the order on a daily basis.

The Yankees are closing in on clinching a spot in the postseason and entered Tuesday night with a 3.0-game lead in the AL East with 12 games remaining. It should be to the surprise of no one just how incredible Soto is and how much more serious of a contender the Yankees look because of him.

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Article originally written by Vincent Pensabene