Even after losing generational slugger Juan Soto as a free agent, thanks to the New York Mets lavishing the largest contract in both baseball and pro sports history on the 26-year-old outfielder, Yankee fans still have it pretty good. The team enjoys 27 World Championships, more than twice the club with the second-most titles.
That would be the St. Louis Cardinals with 11. And in the “what have you done for me lately” category, the Yankees are coming off a 94-win, American League East pennant-winning season. They made it to the World Series. The team appears to be prepared to continue spending money on free agent talent to fill in for the loss of Soto and get back to the Series.
Losing Juan Soto Continues to Aggravate Yankee Fans
Soto’s departure remains a sore spot with Yankee fans nonetheless. When Soto dropped a brutal message to Yankee fans at his Mets introductory press conference Thursday, December 13, one prominent Yankee fan with his own media platform took it personally. He felt compelled to fire back at the superstar who will be playing in 2025 for the fourth team on his career’s first eight years.
At the press conference, Soto attempted to explain why he made the move from the Bronx to Queens, to commit to playing the next and possibly last 15 years of his career for the Yankees’ crosstown rival, the Mets. The money offered by the two organizations was comparable. The Mets offer came in at $765 million for 15 years while the Yankees reportedly presented Soto with a contract for $760 million across 16 years.
The Mets fandom in New York City, according to Soto, played a major role in his decision.
âItâs been a Mets town for a long time,” Soto declared in his statements to the press. That is the comment that stung Yankee fans.
Legendary Sports Anchor is Lifelong Yankee Fan
Rich Eisen, host of the multiple-Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show, had heard all he could take with that remark. Eisen is one of the most prominent media sports commentators in the country due to his trailblazing tenure at ESPN, then as the first on-air talent at NFL Network when it launched in 2003. The longtime Yankee fan set aside a segment of his broadcast on Friday to take aim at Soto’s claim.
âThis one got me,â Eisen began, launching into a rant against Soto. âJuan Soto âItâs been a Mets town for a long timeâ. What is he talking about? Juan, Iâve been around New York City for 55 years. Heâs been around for the proverbial New York minute. Dude, get out of here. Get out of here with that noise. It is just like here in Los Angeles. Clipper town? Get out of here. Itâs a Mets town? Yeah, in your head. He just lived the Yankee life for a year.â
Yankees Have More Accomplished History Than Mets
The Mets have won two World Series, in 1969 and 1986, and have played in the Fall Classic six times since joining MLB as an expansion team in 1962. The Yankees have won their 27 titles in 41 trips to the Series and are one of the American League’s origibal eight franchises, founded in 1903 as the New York Highlanders.
Eisen is 55 years old and was born in New York City. Soto spent his 2024 season with the Yankees, his only season in the Bronx before taking the historic contract from the Mets and switching allegiances. Soto spent 2023 and the latter half of 2022 playing for the San Diego Padres. He spent his first 5 1/2 seasons with the Washington Nationals, the team that signed him as a 16-year-old in 2015, as an international amateur free agent from the Dominican Republic.
The Nationals paid Soto a $1.5 million signing bonus and brought him to the Major Leagues at age 19, when he made his debut on May 20, 2018.
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