The wear and tear on his body - I don’t like it. I do not want Judgie as my center fielder,” Casey said Wednesday on his podcast, “The Mayor’s Office.” “I just think center field is so demanding, dude, and he’s such a big guy, and to have to demand him to go so far in the gaps and be on the run - you have to cover more ground as a center fielder. Let us hear from The Mayor, who just happens to be the Yankees’ previous hitting coach and hates the idea of Aaron Judge playing center field.

Ken’s Notebook: Aaron Judge’s position shift Juan Soto by the numbers: What Yankees are (and aren't) getting plus a bold 2024 prediction He’s also 28 and will be a free agent after 2025. Still, King could be great - he put up a 1.88 ERA in eight starts at the end of last season after four-plus years as a reliever and has a career stat line that features a 3.38 ERA and 282 strikeouts against just 83 walks in 247 2/3 big-league innings. This move revolutionized the Yankees’ lineup, which had a down year in 2023. From the Padres’ perspective, while it does meet their obvious need - a ton of pitching - it has to be a bit disheartening for fans, who celebrated Soto’s arrival at the trade deadline in 2022. The Padres went to the NLCS that year, then had a 2023 season that vacillated between underperforming and unlucky, finishing 82-80, third place in the NL West.Īs for the return, it was never going to be quite as good as what the Padres gave up since Soto can be a 25-year-old free agent at the end of the 2024 season.

Padres get: RHPs Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Randy Vásquez, Jhony Brito and C Kyle Higashioka.Yankees get: OF Juan Soto, OF Trent Grisham.Well, sort of. Shohei Ohtani still hasn’t signed.īut while it might have been a relatively low-tempo summit this year, it finished with a bang: the Yankees and Padres finally consummated the trade that will send Juan Soto to the Bronx.

Slot empire bonus codes