Inside The Pinstripes

Red Sox Legend Trolls Yankees About Juan Soto With 3-Word Message

Boston Red Sox icon David Ortiz took a jab at the Yankees in the aftermath of Juan Soto's free agency decision.

Grant Young

Oct 26, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Fox Sports broadcaster David Ortiz speaks on field after game two between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees in the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Oct 26, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Fox Sports broadcaster David Ortiz speaks on field after game two between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees in the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Every New York Yankees fan in the world must know by now that Juan Soto didn't choose their team in free agency.

Instead, he decided to spend the next 15 seasons playing for the cross-town rival Mets — and is being paid a historic amount of money in order to do so.

It wasn't only these two New York teams who were in hot pursuit of Soto. The three other "finalists" in the Soto sweepstakes were the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox.

Since Soto is from the Dominican Republic, the Red Sox tried to use their rich history of Dominican-born players, such as active players Brayan Bello and Rafael Devers along with legends like Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz) as a recruiting tactic to lure Soto to Fenway Park.

This was proven by Ortiz saying, "Because you're going to play for an organization that has a lot of history. You're going to play for an organization that has the greatest fans. He gonna feel like he's playing at home in the Dominican Republic, and he gonna have, in his corner, his godfather: Big Papi," when asked asked why Soto should choose Boston in free agency during a November 22episode of "The Fenway Rundown: Boston Red Sox Podcast".

Soto didn't choose Boston. However, that didn't stop Ortiz from trolling Yankees fans about them not signing him either.

Soto posted an Instagram reel on December 16 that showcased his Mets signing.

The top comment is from Ortiz, who wrote, "The……. Yankees lose😂😂", which is clearly meant to be a mimicry of the Yankees' legendary radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling's call after each Yankees victory.

At least Yankees fans can take solace in the fact that Ortiz's Red Sox not only lost the Soto sweepstakes, but also lost 13 more games than the Yankees in the 2024 regular season.

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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.

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