It's difficult to believe that the New York Yankees finished with the exact same record in 2025, powered by almost the exact same offense, as they did when Juan Soto was protected by Aaron Judge last season. Year 1 of Soto's long-term bet that the Mets had better title chances than the fading Yankees: not fantastic!
Plenty of people giggled and chortled at Yankee fans who claimed their scrambled "Plan B" post-Soto would end up outperforming the roster with Soto by spreading the money around — and we get it. Chortling is fun. Giggling in the Yankees' general direction: we'd do it, too, if we weren't their fans!