What happens when the two best hitters in the world bat back-to-back in the same lineup? THIS
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
It’s the question almost every manager who has faced the New York Yankees this season has confronted: How in the world do you handle a lineup with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge hitting back-to-back?
There’s no easy answer, especially since Judge flipped the switch on a sluggish start three days into May and whipped out a blowtorch to opposing pitchers. Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli smiled when he was asked about it earlier this month.
“I don’t have anything special here,” Baldelli said. “There’s not an ideal way to attack the guys that are the best in the game at what they do.”
Rarely are the two best hitters in baseball on the same team. But the numbers illustrate that Judge and Soto are not only the top hitters in the sport, but one of the greatest duos ever, already drawing comparisons to legendary Yankees combos of the past, from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. They complement each other to near perfection, a lefty-righty combination putting up historic numbers by patiently exhausting pitchers with remarkable discipline and loudly punishing mistakes.
Soto, 25, is batting .320 with 17 home runs and a 1.025 OPS in his first season in New York. Judge, the 32-year-old captain, is hitting .302 with a 1.118 OPS and an MLB-best 25 home runs.
The outfielders rank first and second in the majors in OPS, OBP, wRC+, and wOBA. Soto’s 4.3 fWAR is fourth. Judge’s 5.0 fWAR is first. Judge is on pace for 57 home runs two years after smashing an American League record 62. Soto is on track to strike gold in free agency this winter before his age-26 season.
They have been the engine for the best record in the majors and a 112-win pace.
“Those two guys benefit from a balanced, strong supporting cast, but [also] the closeness that has existed within the team … and how they’re communicating with one another and how they’re talking to one another,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Certainly, Aaron and Juan being the best hitters in the sport but different. [One’s] right-handed, one’s left-handed. There’s different matchups that favor different guys, but having another guy that they kind of relate to one another, unlike a lot of us can. I’ve seen that, I think, be beneficial.”
It’s what the organization imagined when general manager Brian Cashman chose to send five players to the San Diego Padres for Soto and outfielder Trent Grisham in December, knowing Soto’s Yankees tenure could end after one season. The price, they deemed, was worth paying to partner Soto with Judge for a championship push.
“This,” Boone said, “is what I pictured and fantasized about since the day it happened.”
The fantasy took longer to formulate than expected. While Soto jumped out to a scorching start, Judge languished over the season’s first five weeks as he transitioned to playing center field every day. Judge emerged from a May 2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles with a .197/.331/.393 slash line. His struggles were analyzed from every angle. Were his mechanics off? Was he healthy? Was he just a step slower?
But Judge has laid waste to pitchers since then. He’s batting .413 with a .528 on-base percentage, 19 home runs, and 15 doubles over his last 36 games. He’s slugging 1.000 with nearly as many walks (31) as strikeouts (33) during the stretch. His 1.528 OPS over the span is more than 400 points better than anyone else in the majors. His 310 wRC+ is 109 points better than anyone else. His 4.5 fWAR is 1.9 better than anyone else.
Meanwhile, Soto’s only rough patch of the season lasted all of eight games in which he went 4-for-31 from May 9 through May 16. The stretch was long enough for the right fielder to take extra batting practice on the field with coaches several hours before facing the Chicago White Sox on May 17. Soto then went 4- for-4 with two home runs in a win.
“I was definitely working on my swing,” Soto said. “Trying to find that feeling again where I was hitting the ball the first month and getting that feeling back and just get that confidence back on.”
The Yankees, as a result, are 27-7 with Soto and Judge in the lineup together since May 3.
“I would say it’s the best 2-3 in all of baseball, and I think they’ve shown that’s the case, day in and day out,” Yankees catcher Austin Wells said. “When they’re in the lineup, we have a great chance to win versus any team in baseball.”
No opponent knows that more than the Twins. The Yankees have already swept the season series from Minnesota, going 6-0 with a plus-20 run differential in two series over the last month. Judge went 10-for-20 with seven walks, six doubles, one home run and a 1.680 OPS in the six victories.
“You have to pitch to them,” Baldelli said on June 5. “You don’t really want to put one on base to face the other one. That’s not a good plan, at least in my opinion.”
Later that day, Soto and Judge combined to go 2-for-6 with three walks, five RBIs and three runs scored as the Yankees continued their dominance over Minnesota with a 9-5 win.
The club received a scare the next night, however, when Soto exited a rain-delayed affair with left forearm discomfort. Testing was scheduled for the following day. Suddenly, the Yankees’ World Series hopes hung in the balance, but Soto and the Yankees received the best news possible: No structural damage, just inflammation. Soto’s status was labeled day-to-day, but he didn’t play in the weekend showdown against the Los Angeles Dodgers after starting the Yankees’ first 64 games.
Soto’s absence was palpable in two losses to the Dodgers to begin the marquee series, to the point that the crowd was chanting for Soto while Grisham, his replacement in the lineup, was batting in Sunday’s finale. Grisham reversed their feelings with a go-ahead three-run home run, but the fans’ behavior bothered Judge, who defended Grisham and said, “I wasn’t too happy with it,” while noting Soto’s unmatched presence.
“He’s been carrying this team all year,” Judge said of Soto. “And anytime you go up against good teams like this and fans pay to come see us do our thing, they want to see the best out there.”
Four days later, Soto and Judge were back in the lineup together in Kansas City, occupying the No. 2 and 3 spots, in a 10-1 win over the Royals. It was far from the first time — and most likely won’t be the last time — Soto and Judge wreaked havoc on an opponent. The Yankees are banking on them doing it through the end of October.
“You got that sense right away that this is a good thing,” Boone said. “Certainly, that’s played out so far.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — While discussing the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”
Franklin then caught himself, realizing Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting just to his right.
“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.
Penn State will be representing the Big Ten against FBS independent Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten championship game before earning a No. 6 seed in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoff as an at-large and earned the No. 7 seed despite playing in one fewer game.
Franklin said he thinks a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity around college football, including every team to be part of a conference and playing the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of three remaining FBS independents, sees its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted chances to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and they have a scheduling agreement with the ACC in football.
“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Penn State reached the CFP by playing nine conference games as well as the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 also has maintained a nine-game league slate, while the SEC and ACC have stayed at eight conference games.
Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for remaining at eight league games, which the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered going to nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.
“I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” he said.
Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more uniform, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the strain of playing more games with an expanded playoff. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner unaffiliated with a school or a conference, and once again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with former Washington and Boise State coach Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently stepped down as Wake Forest’s coach.
“We need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.
Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team uses the weekend of conference championships, when they’re guaranteed not to be playing, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.
Notre Dame ended the regular season Nov. 30 and did not play again until Dec. 20, when it hosted Indiana in a first-round CFP game. In helping craft the format for the 12-team CFP, former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick agreed that if the Irish were selected, they would not be eligible to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.
“I’m a guy that just [thinks], ‘Tell us what we’re doing and let’s go, and you move forward,'” Freeman said. “I love where we’re at right now. [Athletic director] Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”
Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty of committee members to sort through teams with vastly different paths and profiles, and determine strength of schedule and other factors.
“How do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football, and they can’t compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”
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