Padres players reveal Aaron Judge reason for Juan Soto's Yankees dominance
06/09/2024 01:37 PM
The San Diego Padres are watching as one of their former teammates is dominating the Big Apple. Padres players are revealing their views as to why Juan Soto is having such an excellent season with the New York Yankees, after leaving southern California.
“You can tell the difference,” one Padre veteran said, per USA Today. “He's so much happier than he was here. You can tell he was just never comfortable. Now he is. He's a different guy.” Padres players believe Aaron Judge’s influence on Soto has helped contribute to his performance this season.
Soto is having an excellent season for the Yankees, although he is currently injured. The Padres got to see their former teammate up close in pinstripes, after New York played San Diego on the road in a recent series.
What Soto is doing in New York
Soto is proving with his bat that his former teammates aren’t wrong. The outfielder has hit .318 so far this season, with 17 home runs and 53 runs batted in. Those numbers are terrific, especially since they have all been posted before mid June. With a healthy Soto, the Yankees have charged in the American League East this season. The club sits atop the division standings, with a 45-21 record. The Bronx Bombers have also won eight of their last 10 games.
Soto previously played for the Padres, during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. While he helped lead the club to the National League playoffs in 2022, Soto wasn’t hitting as well as he is this year. He finished last season with a .275 batting average, and hit 35 home runs. He is on pace to surpass that total this year, although the outfielder is currently out dealing with inflammation. He has missed the last few games after leaving a game on Thursday June 6.
"I know today he felt really good, noticeably better in his eyes, but it was also important I think that yesterday he not do much of anything baseball (related) to try and get this to calm down," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, per the Associated Press. "It sounded like he felt a lot better today. Went through kind of his normal prep stuff that went pretty well. So we'll see what we have tomorrow."
One Yankee who is definitely wondering how Soto is doing is Aaron Judge. The Yankees slugger has seemed to feed off of Soto’s energy this season. Judge is also having a great year hitting the ball, with a .298 batting average. He also has crushed 23 home runs and batted in 57 runs. Judge and Soto are on the same team, but competing against each other for most of the league’s Most Valuable Player awards this season.
Padres’ season without Soto
The Padres may be wondering what it would have been like had they been able to keep Soto around. Interestingly, Aaron Judge has said that he nearly joined forces with Soto in San Diego this past offseason. That would have been a dream come true for most Padres fans.
On the season, San Diego is not having the same success as New York. The Padres hold a respectable 34-34 record, and are in second place in the NL West. The team is eight games behind the Dodgers heading into Sunday’s games.
San Diego plays the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday.
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