We talk an awful lot in New York about the prime of Aaron Judge and how important it is to the Yankees — and to No. 99 himself — that they win a World Series while he is still having what has turned into a Ruthian prime.
In the last two seasons alone, Judge has hit a total of 111 home runs, knocked in 258 runs and followed up a .322 batting average in 2024 with a .331 average last year.
Judge had Juan Soto with him in ’24. The two of them did things together that Ruth once did with Lou Gehrig. Then Soto left Judge and left the Yankees and signed a $765 million contract with the Mets. With all the pressure that contract brought with it, and without Judge in the same batting order with him, Soto resumed his own baseball prime.
He played 160 games, hit 43 home runs, knocked in 105, walked 127 times, had a slugging percentage of .525. In addition to all that, he did something he’d barely done at all with the Yankees: He stole bases, 38 in all. He finished third in the MVP voting in the National League, same as he had in the American League when a Yankee. And was a lot better than you think.
Judge turns 34 this April. Soto doesn’t turn 28 until October. So David Stearns, the Mets’ head of baseball operations, is looking at more runway with Soto, at least as far as his own prime is concerned, than Brian Cashman is with Judge. But Stearns has still been handed the baseball prime of one of the most gifted young hitters to come along in years. It’s why Soto matters as much in Queens now as Judge does in the Bronx.
Soto isn’t the only star on the Mets. Francisco Lindor — because he is a shortstop and a switch-hitter — is the best all-around player the Mets have ever had. Lindor once again will bat ahead of Soto in Carlos Mendoza’s batting order. The protection behind Soto, now that Pete Alonso is with the Baltimore Orioles, is Bo Bichette, a talented enough hitter to have just knocked in 94 runs for the Blue Jays in a season shortened by injury to 139 games.
If they are all blessed with good health, you can see the potential of a 1-2-3 like this for the Mets.
As much as Lindor remains the beating heart of this Mets team, he is a supporting player to Soto. Though Lindor is the most gifted all-around player the Mets have had, they have never had a more complete hitter than Soto, not even when they had a future Hall of Famer like Carlos Beltrán.
It is why Steve Cohen paid Soto all that money, more money than any free agent had ever made in baseball history — and it wasn’t just to take him away from the Yankees. By the time Soto is the one about to turn 34, the way Judge will early in the upcoming season, Soto will be in his eighth season with the Mets.
With Soto in his prime and a core of young talent coming up through the Mets’ system, it’s not entirely about the Mets winning this year, but you can be sure the expectation is that they better win soon.
Here is something Mendoza said last September about Soto:
“The impact that he has there with the boys, that for me is what makes who he is. Special guy, special player.”
Has Soto been as special of a player, just in his two seasons in New York, as Judge has been with the Yankees? No one would say that. There is Judge, and there is Shohei Ohtani. But right behind them comes Soto, who came back from a .241 March/April last year, back from hitting just three home runs and knocking in 12 runs in that time, to hit himself into the MVP conversation even as the Mets were falling apart over the second half of the season. The season he had got lost in the end the way the Mets got lost.
We absolutely ought to be talking about Aaron Judge’s prime. But this is also Juan Soto’s prime in New York. They’re in different boroughs now. The stakes are the same.
