During the last game of the 2024 baseball season – as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series to clinch a championship in front of a sold-out crowd of disappointed New Yorkers – there were still Yankees fans buying No 22 Juan Soto jerseys at the ballpark. This was noteworthy because as soon as the game ended, Soto was a free agent.
He had been traded to New York from the San Diego Padres – where he landed after a bombshell trade from the Washington National team that drafted him and with whom he won a World Series in 2019 – just ahead of his walk year.