{"id":18794,"date":"2025-01-13T03:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T03:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18794"},"modified":"2025-01-13T03:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T03:14:06","slug":"juan-soto-blasted-by-devastating-8-word-message-from-former-yankees-all-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18794","title":{"rendered":"Juan Soto Blasted by Devastating 8-Word Message From Former Yankees All-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Juan-Soto-Devastating-6-word-message.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"Juan Soto\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Juan Soto<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ever since generational slugger Juan Soto made his departure from the New York Yankees final on December 8, accepting a whopping, 15-year, $765 million contract with the Bronx Bombers\u2019 National League crosstown rivals, the New York Mets, the 26-year-old has been taking subtle and not-so subtle\u00a0shots at his former team, as well as at Yankee fans.<\/p>\n<p>Soto spent one season at Yankee Stadium after two years in San Diego. The\u00a0Padres dealt Soto\u00a0and his $31 million salary to New York for a package of five players. With the Yankees, Soto helped the team reach its first World Series in 15 years. Soto posted a\u00a0sixth-best-in-baseball\u00a0Wins Above Replacement number of 7.9 while\u00a0ripping 41 home runs\u00a0with a .989 OPS, which was third-best in MLB.<\/p>\n<p>His 2024 numbers were no anomaly. Soto\u2019s\u00a0.953 career OPS ranks third\u00a0among all active players and\u00a023rd all-time. The\u00a0native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is without a doubt already one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game.<\/p>\n<h2>Soto Made Controversial Claim About New York Baseball<\/h2>\n<p>He was rewarded for his performance by the unprecedented, perk-laden contract lavished on him by Mets owner Steve Cohen. But that apparently was not enough for Soto, who felt compelled to state in his introductory press conference that New York City has \u201cbeen a Mets town for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That claim, to put it mildly, did not go over well with the Yankee fan community. One prominent Yankee fan, former ESPN anchor Rich Eisen immediately called Soto out on his Emmy-nominated\u00a0<em>Rich Eisen Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is he talking about? Juan, I\u2019ve been around New York City for 55 years,\u201d Eisen said on his self-titled program. \u201cHe\u2019s been around for the proverbial New York minute. Dude, get out of here. Get out of here with that noise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, a former Yankees All-Star, who also played\u00a0the final three seasons of his career\u00a0with the Mets, has thrown his pointed reply into Soto\u2019s ring.<\/p>\n<p>Dellin Betances, a three-time All-Star retired right-handed relief pitcher and, like Eisen, native New Yorker who was drafted by his hometown team in the eighth round of the 2006 MLB amateur draft, delivered his response on Friday when he appeared as a guest\u00a0on the\u00a0<em>Foul Territory TV<\/em>\u00a0podcast, hosted by former Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.<\/p>\n<h2>New York \u2018Always\u2019 a Yankees Town<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be a Yankees town,\u201d Bentances, who grew up in the Bronx not far from Yankee Stadium, said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way I feel. I don\u2019t know what he was trying to say by that. I love Juan Soto, but\u2026 he\u2019s in a situation obviously where\u2026 I think him going to the Mets, he gets to be the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betances suggested that beyond the eye-popping contract, getting to be \u201cthe guy\u201d was what drew Soto to the Mets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHim being on the Yankees, \u2026 it\u2019s Judge\u2019s team, regardless,\u201d Betances\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/yankees\/news\/ex-yankees-mets-pitcher-sends-blunt-message-to-juan-soto-about-new-york-s-mlb-team-grant9\">said on the podcast<\/a>. \u201cSoto has a chance to be the guy on the Mets, and not taking anything away from (Francisco) Lindor, but Soto getting that large contract, Lindor has only been with the Mets for only four years, where Judge came up with the Yankees, he\u2019s the Captain. That\u2019s kind of the way I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With\u00a073 days remaining until Opening Day, Soto has exactly that long before he will be required to back up his words with his bat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juan Soto Ever since generational slugger Juan Soto made his departure from the New York Yankees final on December 8, accepting a whopping, 15-year, $765 million contract&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Juan Soto Blasted by Devastating 8-Word Message From Former Yankees All-Star - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18794\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Juan Soto Blasted by Devastating 8-Word Message From Former Yankees All-Star - 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