On Wednesday, the New York Yankees made the trade that had been anticipated by all, acquiring former San Diego Padres star Juan Soto in a seven-player deal.
The Yankees are acquiring a 25-year-old slugger in Soto, whose most notable predecessors are in the Hall of Fame. The team now has its newest star, but it remains to be seen if they will undertake the highly costly move of signing Soto to a long-term contract.
The only other noteworthy trade the Yankees made this offseason was for Alex Verdugo, an outfielder from the Boston Red Sox who is also a left-handed corner who is currently projected more as a depth player than a regular starter.
That makes you the Yankees. You finished the previous season with an 82-80 record, six games short of a postseason berth, and 19 games short of winning the Al East. Two corner outfielders have been added by you. There’s probably more work for you to do.
Going off Baseball Reference’s calculations, Soto has averaged 4.8 WAR per 162 games in his career, while Verdugo was worth an average of about 2.1 each year he was with the Red Sox. Given that the Yankees were relying on some very replacement-level options for their corner outfield spot opposite Aaron Judge, such as Estevan Florial and Oswaldo Cabrera, those additions could be seen as adding roughly seven wins to the Yankees’ total for 2024.
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