Juan Soto's 2024 Season With Yankees Is More Than Historic

Imagine, if you will, a player who has garnered comparisons to Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, two of the greatest hitters in the history of Major League Baseball. Now, concoct a scenario where that same player gets traded twice within a 492-day span. How does that possibly happen? The answer: Juan Soto.

Between August 2nd, 2022 and December 6th, 2023, the affectionately-nicknamed Childish Bambino found himself on three different teams. While would be fairly normal for an average player, it is virtually unprecedented for a player like Soto who, at just 25 years and 304 days of age, has already amassed a batting title, four Silver Sluggers, four All-Star appearances, and has other accomplishments that almost every single hitter who has ever swung a bat in a Major League game can only fantasize about.

To put it simply, how does a player of Soto's caliber find himself recording at-bats for the Nationals, Padres, and Yankees only 16 months apart? Circumstances would have to be extraordinary, which was the case.

In 2019, the Nationals fielded a squad that featured Soto, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Ryan Zimmerman - and won the pennant sans Bryce Harper.

After beating the still-cheating Astros in seven games in that year's Fall Classic, the Nationals facilitated a gradual, multiyear fire sale that culminated in Juan Soto being traded to the Padres in one of the most ambitious swaps in Major League history.

While the Padres did usurp the Dodgers for supremacy in the 2022 NLDS, they flamed out in 2023 after missing the playoffs, and what was once a promising team of ascending superstars has become a bevy of unrealized aspirations.

It came at a steep cost for the Padres, too, as they needed a gargantuan loan just to field a team that many felt was destined to capture its first World Series championship.

Fast forward to the Christmas season in 2023, the Yankees were in desperate search of a lefthanded hitter - one who could truly catapult an anemic lineup sans Aaron Judge to new heights. 19 days before Christmas, the Yankees gave their fans an early present when general manager Brian Cashman signed off on an exchange for Juan Soto's services - and the rest is history.

At this juncture in the 2024 season, Juan Soto has not only formed an all-time tandem with Yankees captain Aaron Judge ; he has also attained many firsts with the Yankees that only a handful of players can lay claim to.

In his freshman campaign in the Bronx, Soto has accomplished the following, with plenty omitted for the sake of brevity and factoring in future statistical output:

• joined Babe Ruth, Jason Giambi, Roger Maris, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Gary Sheffield as the only Yankees with 35 or more home runs in their first season with the team

• accrued three seasons with 30 or more home runs and 100 or more walks

• became the first player in MLB history with four home runs and seven walks in a three-game series

• eighth-fewest games needed to reach 30 home runs with the Yankees

• has coalesced with Aaron Judge as just the sixth duo in franchise history to have seven or more wins above replacement in a season

• became just the sixth Yankee to homer in four consecutive games

• has hit a career-high 37 home runs

For anyone who possesses the objectively wrong thought process of Yankee Stadium being a "Little League ballpark", think again. For anyone who also holds firm to the comical notion that Juan Soto has benefited from the short porch at right field, you are also welcome to reconsider your perspective.

The Yankees had 31 million reasons to acquire Juan Soto this past winter, and even that number is pales in comparison to just how badly they needed him to join forces with them.

As Juan Soto continues to re-write the history books , he will also easily command a gargantuan contract when free agency begins in November - a contract that some feel will only trail Shohei Ohtani's deal.

At the end of the day, Juan Soto's finest season yet is far more than showmanship from a player compared to the best hitters ever; it also a testament to his ability to coalesce with Aaron Judge and form a historically formidable tandem.

History has shown that the Yankees have generally not relinquished burgeoning superstars already on the team who are on the precipice of free agency - particularly since Brian Cashman was named GM in February 1998.

Tracing back to the 1998 offseason, Brian Cashman has managed to retain Bernie Williams , Derek Jeter , Alex Rodriguez , and, of course, Aaron Judge. Hal Steinbrenner and Co. must commensurately award Juan Soto for his output this season, and beyond - much like Soto's aforementioned predecessors and current teammate.