The New York Yankees lost superstar outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Mets during the offseason, with Soto inking the richest contract in the history of professional sports.

The fact that Soto left the Yankees for their crosstown rivals made his departure sting even further, and he is sure to hear his fair share of boos when he returns to the Bronx in mid-May.

Soto spent just one season with the Yanks in 2024, slashing .288/.419/.569 with 41 home runs and 109 RBI over 713 plate appearances, finishing third in AL MVP voting.

Of course, Aaron Judge ultimately won the MVP courtesy of a ridiculous 1.159 OPS, smashing 58 homers to go along with 144 RBI.

Prior to the Yankees’ season opener on Thursday, manager Aaron Boone was raving about Judge, and he threw some subtle shade at Soto in the process.

“Juan Soto was unbelievable for us … Judgey’s got him by over a hundred OPS,” Boone told MLB Network.

While Boone was clearly complimenting Judge, Soto was not part of the initial question. He was asked about how dominant Judge was last year and how impressive he will likely continue to be this season, and decided to include Soto in the discussion.

To be fair, Boone is not the type of guy to fire shots at people, so perhaps this was much ado about nothing. But it sure seems like he went out of his way to make sure that everyone knew Judge was better than Soto last season, his paltry playoff showing notwithstanding.

Judge went 1-for-4 with an RBI double during the Yankees’ season-opening win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Meanwhile, Soto went 1-for-3 with a couple of walks in the Mets’ opener, which they dropped against the Houston Astros.

Needless to say, both sluggers will surely be contending for MVP awards in their respective leagues this year.

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