“It’s been a little frustrating, but it is what it is,” Juan Soto said about his and his team’s recent performances. As they entered game 2 against the Toronto Blue Jays, there was a visibly tense atmosphere around the clubhouse. The New York Yankees had just lost 8 of their last 10 games and were on shaky grounds. And even though Soto had been quite good, he too was going through a slightly lean phase. But June 28 brought with it a lot of changes.

Things were different, there was a little more fire in the squad’s belly. Juan Soto opened their run account after a brilliant play by Aaron Judge. However, that wasn’t enough, Soto needed to swing. And the Dominican star did just that in 6th inning when he swung a majestic hit toward the stands. A three-run homer and the Yankees were firmly in the driver’s seat.  By the end the Bronx Bombers had a 16-5 statement win over the Blue Jays. That made Soto ecstatic.

“It feels great to get the lead to my team every time,” Juan Soto said about his home run. “Just try to relax, make good contact, and at the end of the day I got the homer.” However, the real reason for Soto’s happiness was something else. After a 4-game losing streak, the Yankees have finally won. And to add to that achievement, he’s the one who led that win from the front. For a player in his walk year, performances like this surely help increase his value even further.

“Feels amazing, we all happy and excited to do that,” Soto said about the Yankees continuously adding runs. “Keep it rolling, most important thing is to win the game.  I think it feels great to win another game.” Certainly, it does. After snapping their rapid slide, the entire Pinstripes roster was in a celebratory mood. 

However, while the team is in great spirits, Juan Soto has more reasons to celebrate. With this homer, he has entered into an elite group of players all over the New York Yankees’ history.

Juan Soto joins Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez in Yankees history

Amidst Aaron Judge’s otherworldly form, one tends to forget that Juan Soto too is close to putting up a career season. With a slash line of .302/.434/.570/1.005, Soto’s near the top in every metric. But now he’s tying up some historical records as well. The home run that he hit in the last game was his 20th of the season. Soto has managed to do that in just 84 games and that is an extremely rare occurrence in the New York Yankees history.

Apart from Soto, only 7 Yankees have hit 20 or more homers in their first 84 games with the team. The list includes players like Babe Ruth (1920), Roger Marris (1960),  Bobby Bonds (1975), Alex Rodriguez (2004), Mark Teixeira (2009), and Giancarlo Stanton (2018). As one can see, Juan Soto is now a part of an elite group. More importantly, most of these players ended up being Yankees legends.

However, for Soto, this is his walk year and that is a huge thing. The more he succeeds, the more Scott Boras will smile. The Childish Bambino was already ready to fetch a huge deal but his recent surge in form has the potential of increasing the ceiling of his price.