It’s always a good show, and big fun, when the Mets and Yankees play for the city championship in another Subway Series -- the first of which is at Yankee Stadium this weekend. It will be even a better show than usual this time because both teams are in first place. But you know who makes it great this time, before the first pitch is thrown? Juan Soto.
When “Friends” was one of the biggest hits on network television, the episode titles always began this way: “The one where ...” For the Mets and Yankees this weekend, the episode title could be this: “The One Where Juan Soto Comes back to the Stadium as a Met.” It just isn’t likely to be a lot of laughs for Soto when he starts hearing it from his old friends in the Bronx.
This time around, we get the heightened and high-heat drama of Soto’s return, because there has never been a crosstown return quite like it. And whatever happens, whether he hits or whether he doesn’t, it is going to be a lot, and you know that means a lot of noise. Soto came to the Yankees last year and not only helped put them back into the World Series for the first time in 15 years, he became for this one season an absolutely ferocious 1-2 punch with Aaron Judge -- the two of them becoming only the third combination in Yankees history who hit 40 home runs or more. The other two combinations were merely Ruth and Gehrig, Maris and Mantle.
Soto was everything for which the Yankees could have hoped when they made the trade for him with the Padres. Then he left. Left to play right field for the Mets. Left for the biggest free-agent contract in history, $765 million, even though the Yankees were basically offering the same money. You know when Yankees fans will forgive and forget on that one? When all the plaques fall off the walls in Monument Park.
Here is a quote from Soto about all that from the other day:
“We have to keep moving forward, forget about who we’re going to face and just try to win the series because, in the end, that’s what we’re here for.”
That sounds just right in theory. Just not as a practical matter, not at a time when fans of both teams are dreaming about the first Subway World Series in 25 years. The games this weekend are going to be saltier than usual -- and that is saying plenty -- because of the flashpoint that Soto has become for Yankees fans since he went with the other guys.
And it is more than just Soto’s first time back to the Stadium since leaving. He is off to a slow start by his own high standards, with eight home runs, 20 RBIs and a .255 batting average -- even with Francisco Lindor off to a hot start hitting ahead of him and Pete Alonso off to the hottest start of his career behind him, where Judge used to be. Judge, of course, is off to the hottest start of his career, one of the hottest in baseball history. He has a .412 batting average in the middle of May and 15 home runs, the latest coming in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon to help his team win another game. So far, he has not missed Soto even a little bit.
Another sub-plot? Trent Grisham, who came to the Yankees from the Padres along with Soto but was seen as little more than a throw-in, has hit 12 home runs himself so far, with more RBIs (22) than Soto has and a higher batting average (.283). His contribution, as the Yankees have tried to pick up the slack without Soto, has been one of the biggest surprises of the entire season, and not just in New York.
“I love the way [Grisham] is playing all around,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, only because he ought to.
Grisham is hitting. Paul Goldschmidt is hitting .346, which for now is nearly a hundred points higher than what Soto has done for the Mets. The Yankees haven’t been great so far, but still good enough to lead an otherwise mediocre American League East. The Mets have been slightly better, and they have been helped mightily by Soto’s presence hitting where he hit for the Yankees, No. 2 in the order.
Both the Mets and Yankees lost to the Dodgers last October. The Mets played the eventual champs all the way to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. The Yankees lost in five tough games in the World Series, and they seemed to be on the verge of doing what the Mets had done -- pushing the thing back to L.A. for a Game 6 -- before everything fell apart for the Yankees in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium ... the end.
You know the ending that all baseball fans in New York City want for this season? They want them to play each other in October for only the second time. They want a real Subway Series out of the past. For now, though, these three games at the Stadium will have to do, even though this will be no sitcom at the Stadium. Maybe a better title for the episode is this: “The One About The One Who Got Away.”