Yankees’ Aaron Boone compares Aaron Judge, Juan Soto walk years

During his tenure as New York Yankees manager, Aaron Boone has had front-row seats as sluggers Aaron Judge and Juan Soto produced memorable and lucrative seasons amid walk years. 

Boone spoke with reporters on Sunday about those experiences as Soto remains on track to reach free agency after the World Series.

“Obviously both guys handled it incredibly well,” Boone said about how Judge and Soto performed in contract years, as shared by Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “…Aaron was entrenched in the organization and came up through the system and obviously established himself as a great player here and the face of our franchise long before that free-agent year, whereas Juan came in and had to assimilate to a new situation, new team, new teammates. But in both cases, they’ve gone out and had maybe their best seasons to date.” 

Judge, who has played only for the Yankees during his big-league career, famously declined New York’s seven-year, $213.5M contract extension offer ahead of the 2022 campaign before he hit an American League single-season record 62 home runs en route to earning Most Valuable Player honors. He eventually signed a nine-year, $360M deal to stay with the Yankees in December of that year. 

Soto joined the Yankees from the San Diego Padres via a December 2023 trade and then recorded a career-high 41 homers with 109 RBI this season. According to ESPN stats, he finished the regular season third in all of MLB with a .989 OPS. 

“Hitting is not easy,” Boone said about Judge’s and Soto’s accomplishments. “Even when you’re the best of the best, you’re failing a lot. But I think it’s a testament to how good they are and their makeup of being able to really stay present with what they’re doing and not getting ahead of yourself of what’s to be.”

In late September, ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney said during a podcast appearance that he felt at that time Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner would “be outbid by somebody” for Soto’s services. It’s widely believed that big-spending New York Mets owner Steve Cohen could offer Soto up to $600M to make an offseason move to Queens. 

“Probably a little bit at different times I wonder what happens or what it’s going to end up being in the end,” Boone admitted about Soto’s upcoming free agency journey. “But you also know being in this game long enough that every winter is different. Sometimes it takes the right people being in the mix to what the final number is going to be. Whatever it is, he’s going to be in a pretty good spot.”

Boone, Soto and everyone else associated with the Yankees are doing all they can to focus on the ongoing best-of-five AL Division Series versus the Kansas City Royals that New York leads 1-0. Game 2 takes place at Yankee Stadium on Monday evening. 

As of late Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Yankees as the betting favorites at +265 odds to win the World Series.