Inside The Pinstripes

Juan Soto Confirms He Hasn't Spoken to Ex-Yankees Teammates Since World Series

Former New York Yankees player Juan Soto confirmed silence between him and all former Yankees teammates since signing with the Mets.

Grant Young

Dec 12, 2024; Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto meets the media during a press conference at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Dec 12, 2024; Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto meets the media during a press conference at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images
In this story:

A November 22 X post from SNY showed that New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge not only hadn't spoken to former Yankee Juan Soto about his free agency since New York lost the World Series, but the two hadn't communicated during the entire offseason.

"Yeah, I haven't talked to him at all," Judge said in a phone interview with SNY when asked about deciding how much to speak to Soto about free agency this offseason.

"I think the best thing is to really give those guys space," Judge added. "You know, I talked to him all season and he knows how we feel about him. And I think the most important thing is [to] now let him do his thing with his family, pray about it, talk with people, and come to the right decision for him and his family.

"So yeah, I haven't talked to him at all. I thought I'd talk to him maybe yesterday on the [MVP announcement] call... but he wasn't there," the 2024 AL MVP concluded.

Soto ended up rejecting the Yankees' final free agency offer of $760 million for 16 years and elected to sign a 15-year, $765 million contract to join the New York Mets instead.

Soto's inaugural press conference with the Mets took place on December 12. At one point, he was asked if he had spoken to any of his now-former Yankees teammates since signing with the Mets.

“I haven’t talked to any of those guys," Soto responded, per an X post from SNY. "We talked to them through the playoffs, at the end of the playoffs. But after I [had] this process, I haven’t talked to anyone [on the Yankees].”

When Soto was asked about whether he had spoken to Judge specifically, he said, "I haven't," per SNY.

The reporter then asked Soto if he expected to, and he said, "Yeah. Why not? Yeah. Definitely, at the end of the day, we're still friends, we're still cool. Everything that happens, it's just business-wise. But the relationship that we created last year I think is gonna stay there forever. And I'm looking forward to [that]."

It will be interesting to see whether Soto and Judge return to speaking terms in the future.

Published |Modified
Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

Home/News