On New Year’s Day, I wrote the following:
Since Juan Soto left for Queens, the Yankees have made themselves into a better team. That’s not to say losing Soto doesn’t suck or that he would have prevented them from being a better team (the Steinbrenners would have prevented the Yankees from being a better team with Soto because they would have been reluctant to add more to their payroll). But the Yankees now have a deeper rotation with the signing of Max Fried. They have a stronger bullpen with the trade for Devin Williams and re-signing of Jonathan Loaisiga, and they are much better defensively with Aaron Judge back in right field, Cody Bellinger now in either center or left, Paul Goldschmidt at first base and Jazz Chisholm back to second base.
On Tuesday, Michael Kay posed a question asking if the Yankees are better off for 2025 with the roster they built following Soto’s signing with the Mets given the litany of injuries that have decimated their roster. The answer is an obvious yes.
Of course I wanted Soto back. I would have given him $100 million per year. I would have given him ownership stake. Who cares? It’s not my money. Long term, Soto is the right decision every time, whether he gains 50 pounds and becomes a full-time designated hitter or not. But for 2025, not having Soto and having the depth (as shallow as that depth is) they created is more important.
With Soto, there’s no Bellinger. There’s likely no Williams. There’s probably no Goldschmidt. (There’s still no third baseman, since apparently fielding an everyday player at every position wasn’t an option for this season.) Yes, Soto, who represents a Top 3 bat in the game would be there, but the defense (which is now a necessity) would be worse, the game’s best closer wouldn’t be on the roster and DJ LeMahieu (who’s unsurprisingly injured) or Ben Rice would be expected to be the team’s first baseman. But most importantly, with Soto, there’s no Fried.
No Fried. No Gerrit Cole. No Luis Gil for at least three months. That makes Carlos Rodon the team’s No. 1 starter. That makes Clarke Schmidt the No. 2. That makes Marcus Stroman (who three weeks ago arrived at spring training assuming a trade was imminent) the No. 3. The 4 and 5? A combination of Carlos Carrasco and Will Warren.
Rodon has made 30-plus starts in two of his 10 seasons, Schmidt is 29 with one season of more than 16 starts in the majors to his name, Stroman pitched to a 5.88 ERA and put 131 baserunners on in 75 innings over his final 16 starts last season, Carrasco has a 5.02 ERA in 547 1/3 innings since the start of 2019 and Warren put 44 baserunners on in 22 2/3 innings with a 10.32 ERA last season.
The same gambles for 2025 of needing Austin Wells to build on his rookie season, Anthony Volpe to build anything, Jasson Dominguez to become an important bat who could catch routine fly balls and one of Oswaldo Cabrera or Oswald Peraza to be close to league average as an every third baseman would exist if Soto were here. But the defense would be worse. The rotation would be a laughingstock and the bullpen would be weaker.
With Soto, the Yankees would still have the greatest offensive duo since Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris with he and Judge. But with Soto and no one else from this offseason, the Yankees would be closer to being the Angels teams of the Mike Trout/Shohei Ohtani era than they would a postseason team in 2025. (Again, the question was asked about 2025 only.)
I completed the five stages of grief when it comes to Soto no longer being a Yankee a couple months ago. It took me a couple of weeks to move through the first (denial) and second (anger) steps, but I was only briefly in the third (bargaining) and fourth (depression) steps. Acceptance (the fifth step) is where I remain, and seeing what the Yankees’ roster has become this spring and knowing what it would look like if the offseason had been Soto and nothing else has only made the acceptance grow.
Last modified: Mar 11, 2025
