Breaking: Yankees 25 year old Superstar in talks with rivary team over a Blockbuster trade

Last week, I talked with two people I consider some of the smartest baseball fans I know about Juan Soto and his plate discipline. On the surface, the Dominican-born star has a flawless approach that results in high OBPs and walk rates, and there’s nothing that you’d want him to alter because it’s resulted in one of the best starts to a career in the history of the sport. They brought up very reasonable concerns regarding his over-selectiveness and whether that was limiting his ceiling at the plate.

As a Yankees fan, of course, I scoffed at the notion that our shiny new star could be anything other than perfect at the plate, but when looking at the numbers; they were absolutely correct. Jan Soto udoesn’t have bad plate discipline, but there are instances where he doesn’t swing and misses out on an opportunity to do damage, something that even he seemed to identify over the final month of the season.

Juan Soto may have chased more and walked a little less, but the overall increase in damage output made any of those losses obsolete. It may seem odd for a future Hall of Famer to change his approach, but the results speak for themselves. After belting two home runs and driving in six runs in a game against the Oakland Athletics, Juan Soto gave quotes to the San Diego Union-Tribune about his hot streak

I’ve been trying to find the perfect timing, and it’s been tough, but the last couple weeks it’s been feeling like the Juan Soto I know. I’m able to hit the ball to the other way. I’m able to pull the ball wherever I want. I don’t have to worry about the inside pitches. I don’t have to worry about changeups or anything. I’m just swinging. It’s been feeling like that.”

That’s the version of Juan Soto that the Yankees are going to need if he’s hitting second, and it might be the one that gets him paid the most amount of money as well. Everyone is aware that this is a walk year for the superstar outfielder, and we also know that he’s about to get paid. If he wants to put himself in a position to get a contract exceeding $500 million, having a career year could go a long way toward that goal, and there’s a player on the Yankees who can tell him all about the value of an incredible walk year

Yankees Have Another Walk Year Superstar On Their Hands

It wasn’t too long ago that Jon Heyman had us thinking that we’d lose the Yankees’ most important player, and all of it started because of what Aaron Judge accomplished in 2022. Slugging 62 home runs and having the first full season with a wRC+ north of 200 since Barry Bonds, the right-hander had one of the best seasons in modern MLB history. He also changed his approach at the plate, focusing on more pulled contact which resulted in more aggressive swings and a much higher barrel rate.