Juan Soto shocked the baseball world with one revealing comment on Thursday.
During his introductory press conference with the New York Mets, Soto revealed he hadn’t spoken to any of his now-former New York Yankees teammates since the World Series ended.
“I haven’t talked to any of those guys,” Soto said. “We talked to them through playoffs, end of the playoffs but after that… I haven’t talked to any of those.”
That’s shocking given how hard the Yankees pushed to re-sign the superstar slugger, and the fact that several of his teammates were openly saying they hoped he returned and got a huge contract.
The Yankees landed Soto and Trent Grisham from the San Diego Padres last December in exchange for Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito, Randy Vasquez and Kyle Higashioka. He went out and had an incredible season, slashing .288/.419/.569 while setting career-highs in home runs (41) and WAR (7.9) and racking up 109 RBIs.
With Soto in a lineup that also featured American League MVP Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees slugged their way to the World Series, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
After a lengthy pursuit, Soto wound up signing a 15-year, $765 million deal, eschewing the Yankees for the crosstown Mets. According to him, his former teammates didn’t lobby him to stay.