‘Who doesn’t want to be part of Yankees history?’: Before Juan Soto hits free agency, there’s work to do
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — This year’s Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, which doubled as a 2009 championship team reunion, offered a glimpse into a possible future for Juan Soto — one in which he commits to a career in pinstripes, becomes a Yankees legend and returns to the Bronx a hero long after his playing days are over.
More than 30 former New York Yankees mingled with current players, roaming from the clubhouse and dugout to the bowels of the stadium. Soto chatted with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodríguez, CC Sabathia and Jorge Posada, among others who flourished as Yankees, won World Series titles, and finished their playing days here. He eagerly picked their brains. He intently listened to their messages, calling those conversations “great for me and my career.”
In turn, those stars gushed about the 25-year-old superstar.
“It’s been a match made in heaven,” Sabathia said.
Said Posada: “He looks great in pinstripes. I would love to see him here for a long time.”
Soto has thrived in his first year in New York. He became an instant fan favorite and is on track to post the best season of his career, slugging alongside Aaron Judge on a nightly basis. It has, so far, been a rousing success. But even as October and a chance to win a pennant approaches, Soto’s impending free agency continues to hover over it all. This offseason, Soto will face the most important decision of his life: Will he be in attendance for the next Old-Timers’ Day or be one-and-done in the Bronx?
In May, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said he would be open to signing Soto to a contract extension during the season, adding that he wants to see Soto in pinstripes “for the rest of his career.” But that was always unlikely — Scott Boras, Soto’s agent, strongly prefers having his players reach free agency.
Soto’s fusion of talent, durability and age — reaching free agency at 26 is a money-making anomaly — is expected to spark a bidding war starting at $500 million. Several big league clubs are likely to engage, perhaps none more aggressively than the crosstown Mets.
“We’ll be on the lookout for the Yankees in the offseason, and we’ll listen to all their offers,” Soto said in Spanish earlier this summer. “And we’ll see what happens.”
In other words: Soto will shop around. But the Yankees can afford to give him the second-richest contract in history behind Shohei Ohtani‘s deal with the Dodgers — and the richest based on present-day value.
The Yankees have at least $65 million coming off the books this offseason, and keeping Soto is atop their to-do list. Their approach to the trade deadline hinted at that. New York ended up adding two players with contracts under team control for the next two seasons: Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Mark Leiter Jr. A day after the deadline, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman noted that the club took future payroll into account when considering possible acquisitions. Saving money for Soto was left unsaid, but every conversation about their star right fielder revolves around wanting him in New York for the rest of his career.
“Of course I want it to be forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But you just try and appreciate it.”
THE BLEACHER CREATURE chants, now a semi-regular occurrence at Yankee Stadium, materialized the day after Old-Timers’ Day, on a steamy August afternoon.
“Re-sign Soto! Re-sign Soto!”
Soto was standing in right field. Judge, his partner in mashing, was stationed in center. The pair playfully acknowledged the serenade. Judge tapped his glove to the rhythm. He cupped his ear for more noise. Soto, smiling, looked over at him, and gestured as if to say, “What can I do?”
In the previous half-inning, Soto and Judge had collaborated on one of the most electrifying sequences in their historic but potentially brief partnership: back-to-back-to-back home runs against the Colorado Rockies. Soto ignited the barrage. Judge went second. Veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton delivered the final bang.
It was the 12th time Soto and Judge homered in the same game this season. They’ve been the most dominant tandem in baseball. But they embarked on their union with a bit of a conundrum.
The pair started the season with a standard, leaping forearm-bash home run celebration, which to them wasn’t good enough. They wanted a personalized handshake to commemorate their longballs. In May, shortstop Anthony Volpe came up with an idea.
“He said we were ‘The Kings of New York,'” Soto said. “So, we did something with that.”
After a few fixes and some practice, Soto and Judge unveiled the final product: Up top and down low three times and a Superman imitation before placing crowns on their heads. No home run celebration has been used more since.
The duo has combined for 90 homers, 14 more than any other pair of teammates in baseball. Judge has a league-leading 51, giving him an outside shot of matching his own American League record of 62. Soto’s 38 are fourth in the majors and a career high.
“He just finds a way to impact the game every single day,” Judge said. “He’s always focused on the team, which is something I always love. Like, he’s here for us and that can be tough when it’s your third team and you’re about to be a free agent.
“Every other day you got another fan yelling from the outfield, ‘Sign a contract, stay here!’ You got other teams, whenever we go play somewhere else — we play in Philly, we play the Mets — you got people saying stuff. Man, it’s a treat. It’s a treat just to see that.”
Soto and Judge have gone back and forth this summer calling each other the greatest hitter in the world. The title firmly belongs to Judge in 2024, but Soto’s résumé, when adjusted for age, is unmatched among current players.
He is a World Series champion, four-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger. He’s won a batting title and a Home Run Derby. His 35.7 fWAR since debuting in May 2018 ranks fourth in the majors behind Judge, Mookie Betts and Francisco Lindor. He is on a first-ballot Hall of Fame trajectory with what is universally considered the best plate discipline in baseball.
This year, Soto, who started in the All-Star Game for the first time, is third in the majors in fWAR — behind Judge and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Only Judge has a better on-base percentage and wRC+. Only Judge has accumulated more walks.
Soto has a 1.029 OPS against right-handed pitchers and a .954 OPS against lefties. He is in the 98th percentile or better across the majors in exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage, chase rate and walk rate, among other categories that make front offices salivate. He’s hit three home runs in a game. His four bunt hits this season are as many or more than five teams have in total. His defense, dismal last season as a left fielder in San Diego, has vastly improved with his return to right field.
Soto has excelled despite playing through forearm and hand injuries, missing just four games this season after playing in all 162 for the Padres in 2023.
“He’s just like a metronome,” Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said. “It’s the same look every day. It’s pretty rare. It’s really hard to do. But it’s a trait that a lot of great players, most great players, have. I think he takes it up to maybe another level. Puts his own kind of flair on it within the game. But he’s just so disciplined off the field.”
A week after the Bleacher Creatures’ debut of their “Re-sign Soto” chant, they made another round of pleas during a win over the St. Louis Cardinals. And again, Soto and Judge looked at each other and smiled. Soto turned and acknowledged them, to thunderous cheers. But when asked about the cheers after the first rendition, Soto redirected the request.
“They have to talk to Cashman,” Soto said with a laugh.
CASHMAN, OF COURSE, is the one responsible for acquiring Soto in a seven-player trade with the San Diego Padres last December knowing Soto was one year from free agency. The Yankees were willing to take the risk because they believed he was an ideal fit for a lineup desperate for a strong left-handed-hitting presence. That he would be a Dominican superstar in the city with the largest Dominican population in the United States was icing on the cake. So far, it’s been a seamless fit.
Soto’s family often visits from the Dominican Republic; his father (also Juan José) is a frequent presence on the field at Yankee Stadium before games, usually accompanied by friends or relatives. He sometimes carries a camera to snap pictures. Soto also has a personal content creator — hired by his camp — who occasionally travels here from Santo Domingo.
He has an aunt in Manhattan and an uncle in the Bronx. He attended Knicks and Rangers playoff games with teammates in the spring. He went to an Aventura concert and recently appeared at the US Open in Flushing. But Soto resides in a suburb about 40 minutes from Yankee Stadium and said the grind of the season has not allowed for much exploration.
“I’ve enjoyed the area where I live,” Soto said. “I’ve gone around a bit and done some things and seen how everything is. But, to be honest, the city itself, I haven’t enjoyed it too much because I haven’t come down much.”
That hasn’t been necessary to make Yankee Stadium feel like home. Soto’s penchant for the stage has resonated with the franchise’s notoriously unforgiving fans, whose adoration is exhibited before every home game, when Soto jogs out to right field, gestures a hug to the Bleacher Creatures, bows and points to his chest. More often than not, a Dominican flag can be spotted. Every single time there’s a roar.
“It’s a fan base that’s a little different,” Soto said. “I think it’s a fanbase that wants to win, that is very proud. I would say it’s fun, but it’s also a challenge. You have to produce on the field. If not, you know what’s coming.”
Soto has produced, but he has also infused the Yankees with a unique blend of swagger, maturity and craftsmanship that has been embraced in the Bronx.
He rankles pitchers with intense stares and his trademark Soto Shuffle, an exaggerated reaction to pitches out of the strike zone he birthed in the minor leagues to inspire confidence. He playfully trash-talks catchers. He is the kind of player you love to have on your side and loathe to face. Tim Hill knows.
The left-handed middle reliever with the funky delivery has been Soto’s teammate the past three seasons — first with the Padres and now with the Yankees. Before that, in 2021, he faced Soto three times. Soto struck out in each at-bat. The one-on-one battles resonated.
“He swings and you flinch,” Hill said with a laugh. “It’s just a cat-and-mouse game that I happen to come out on top of. He gets his A-swing off every single time. Even in two-strike counts. Like I would throw the four-seam up and he swings through it, but I swear I could feel the frickin’ wind from the swing. I’m exaggerating a little bit, obviously, but you feel it.
“I remember his shuffle. He shuffled on me ball one and it pissed me off a little bit. I actually love the way he plays mind tricks with the pitcher because I remember it worked against me. It made me mad. And I was like, ‘Ugh!’ I wanted to get him. And I happened to. But also I think he baits guys, in a way getting in a pissing contest with him. Like, ‘All right, you want this?’ And then they’ll throw it, and he frickin’ whacks it out of the yard.”
The gamesmanship has evolved to include catchers. Conversations between hitters and catchers, especially familiar foes, are common. But Soto takes the interactions to another level.
“He’ll say, ‘What are you going to call now? If the pitch is there again, I’m going to hit it out,'” Mets backup catcher Luis Torrens said in Spanish. “If he doesn’t agree with a called strike, he’ll say, ‘No, that pitch was a ball.’ And he’ll go, ‘It’s OK, I’ll give it to him, I’ll give it to the pitcher.’ His confidence is unbelievable. His mentality is he’s going to talk and deliver.”
Torrens spent spring training this season with the Yankees and got to know Soto. He learned the banter comes from a competitive place. So he wasn’t surprised when in July, Soto crushed a 443-foot home run off Mets left-hander Sean Manaea and instantaneously turned around to smile at Francisco Álvarez before beginning his trot.
“It’s part of my game,” Soto said. “In the end, I say that at home plate you have to play it like a game of chess. Always have your strategy, try to see what they have in mind and work from there. I don’t know if they’re scared, but it’s part of me managing my confidence at the plate. Moving my pieces. Trying to see what is the weak spot to attack.”
Boone was in his first season at the helm when Soto made his Yankee Stadium debut in June 2018, as a 19-year-old rookie on a veteran Washington Nationals team with World Series aspirations. He had heard about Soto from his father, Bob, who had been with the Nationals front office since 2005.
“I remember him always saying, ‘Juan Soto is the guy and he’s ready now,'” Boone said. “He was in like A-ball, Double-A. He said, ‘This guy is different.'”
Soto, who had zoomed from A-ball to the majors before the end of May, arrived for his first Bronx experience as a platoon player. He wasn’t in the lineup in the series opener because Sabathia, a left-hander, started on the mound for the Yankees. Soto watched the Nationals lose 3-0.
The next night, Soto batted seventh and played left field. He walked in his first at-bat against right-hander Sonny Gray. Two innings later, he sliced a go-ahead three-run moonshot home run down the left-field line. Three innings after that, he annihilated a fastball from left-hander Chasen Shreve, 436 feet over the Yankees’ bullpen for a go-ahead solo homer.
“That was a freakin’ bomb to right-center,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez recalled earlier this summer. “I was like, ‘Wow.’ I’ll tell you what impressed me most: Nothing seems to faze him no matter where he’s at.”
With the blasts, Soto became the youngest player since Ken Griffey Jr. to hit two home runs at Yankee Stadium. It was obvious he thrived in that setting — so obvious, teammate Gio Gonzalez, a veteran starting pitcher, made a prediction that night.
“Gio told me, ‘Enjoy it because you’re going to be a Yankee one day,'” Soto said. “‘This is going to be your house.'”
SOON, SOTO WILL decide if 2024 was a temporary stay.
Two years ago, he turned down a 15-year, $440 million offer — without deferrals — from the Nationals, prompting the team to trade him to the Padres for a haul of prospects that summer. Now, he and Boras will be looking for far more.
“I let him do his thing in his area, and I do it in mine,” Soto said of Boras. “I think that’s the best way to do it. I’m intelligent in my playing field, in everything I do. And he’s intelligent in his area. So I think that’s how we’ve done it and we’ve felt very comfortable with how we’ve done it.”
The Mets loom as the Yankees’ strongest competition, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Mets owner Steve Cohen’s deep pockets and burning desire to win could upend the bidding war.
The Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are among the other clubs that could make calls. The Nationals would love a reunion, according to people with knowledge of the situation, but it would take ownership allocating more money for Soto than they were previously willing to offer.
Two years ago, Judge faced a similar decision: Remain a Yankee for life, or play elsewhere. Like Soto, Judge had a career season with the Yankees heading into free agency, surpassing Roger Maris’ mark of 61 home runs established in 1961. Knowing the weight on Soto’s shoulders, Judge said he has been mindful of avoiding discussing free agency since the spring.
“I just kind of talked to him early on and said, ‘Hey, just do your thing. There’s going to be a lot of noise, but you play your game, you do what you can. All that stuff’s going to work out at the end,'” Judge said. “And we kind of just left it at that because I know how it was when I was going through it. I didn’t want somebody bringing it up every single day. I didn’t want somebody to bring it up every month. After a good month bringing it up, after a bad month bringing it up. It’s just, ‘Go do your thing.'”
In the meantime, Soto and Judge have at least the rest of this month of baseball together — and they hope to make a run in October. It’s been five years since Soto’s Fall Classic debut, and this year he’d like to bring Judge along with him.
In 2019, Soto’s World Series began with a strikeout against Cole, then a Houston Astro, in the first inning. Three innings later, he blasted a 96-mph fastball up and away to the railroad track beyond the wall in left-center field at Minute Maid Park.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s never happened before,'” Cole said. “I don’t think anyone has hit a pitch like that.”
In Game 6, in response to Alex Bregman homering and carrying his bat all the way to first base, Soto carried his bat to first base after smashing a fastball from Justin Verlander to the second deck. It was both petty and heady. His talent, and brashness, were on full display. His shuffle captivated the national audience every night. The Nationals won the series in seven games.
“It’s a guy that’s been there, done that,” Judge said. “He’s played in big moments, played in big games. And I think that’s what it really comes down to. You see a lot of these teams over the years that have won, they got guys that have been in big moments.
“Look at the Rangers last year, you add a guy like Corey Seager, he wins his second World Series MVP and he’s been in those big moments. You gotta have those guys that are cool, calm and collected in those big moments and he’s definitely one of those guys.”
Now Soto and Judge are looking to create their own chapter with a championship ending. It might be their only chance.
“Who doesn’t want to be part of Yankees history?” Soto said. “I think the only way to be part of Yankees history is being a champion.”
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Jorge Castillo
ATLANTA — The 2025 MLB All-Star Game featured the two best pitchers in the world on the mound to start for their respective leagues and the two best position players in the opposing lineups. It included the first automatic ball-strike system challenges in All-Star Game history, a rousing six-run comeback, a memorable appearance for a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and a beautiful tribute to the late Hank Aaron just miles from where he surpassed Babe Ruth on the career home run list.
But the exhibition, a remarkable show played at Truist Park on a muggy Tuesday night, will be remembered for how it ended.
When it was over, nearly four hours after the first pitch, the National League outlasted the American League behind Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber in an unprecedented Home Run Derby-style swing-off, with a 4-3 homer edge after the score was tied at 6-6 through nine innings.
Schwarber pulverized three home runs on three swings in the swing-off after going 0-for-2 with a walk during the nine innings, becoming the first position player to win All-Star Game MVP without recording a hit in the game.
The American League leads the National League in the All-Star Game, with a record of 48 wins, 44 losses and 2 ties.
Officially, the result, just the Senior Circuit’s second victory in the past 12 matchups, didn’t have a winning or losing pitcher of record. Unofficially, it was one of the most enthralling endings to any marquee baseball game, exhibition or not.
“It’s like wiffle ball in the backyard,” AL manager Aaron Boone said.
The tiebreaker, a baseball version of a hockey shootout, was established in 2022. On Monday, both managers — Boone and the NL’s Dave Roberts — were required to submit their list of participants and alternates to MLB should the game need the swing-off after nine innings. Knowing starters usually shower and leave the ballpark well before the end of the game, the managers opted for reserves.
The exercise again appeared to be unnecessary once the NL took a 6-0 lead — fueled by New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso‘s three-run homer — into the seventh inning. But the AL scored four runs in the seventh and tied the game when down to its last out in the ninth to send the 95th All-Star Game to the swing-off.
“Dave asked yesterday, ‘If there’s a tie, would you do it?'” said Schwarber, the only member of the Phillies who participated in this year’s All-Star festivities. “I said, ‘Absolutely,’ not thinking that we were going to end up in a tie when you say yes. And then as the game’s going, you’re looking at the score, you’re not really thinking the game’s going to end in a tie.”
But even that process prompted brief confusion. Roberts originally selected Schwarber, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez and Alonso, a two-time Home Run Derby champion. But Suarez, who was hit on his left hand by a pitch in the eighth inning, was scratched after being announced and replaced by Miami Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers.
Boone countered with Athletics designated hitter Brent Rooker, Seattle Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena and Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
Los Angeles Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel threw for the NL. New York Yankees first-base coach Travis Chapman assumed the pressure-packed duty for the AL.
Finally, the rules: Each player was granted three swings and an unlimited number of pitches to take them.
Rooker, the only participant to also take part in Monday’s Home Run Derby, led off with two homers. Stowers followed with one. Arozarena then extended the AL’s lead to 3-1, setting the stage for Schwarber.
Schwarber, a man seemingly built to smash baseballs over the wall, has never won a Home Run Derby. He lost in the finals in 2018 and failed to advance out of the first round in 2022; he hasn’t entered another one since. On Tuesday, however, he did not falter.
The three-time All-Star, after building some drama with a delayed emergence from the NL dugout, crushed three home runs, drawing louder and louder reactions with each one. The first was a 428-foot laser that traveled 107 mph to straightaway center. Next, he cracked a 461-foot, 109 mph moon shot to right field. He finished the spree with a 382-foot dinger, dropping down to one knee as the ball soared into the right-field seats and eliciting a rambunctious reaction from his temporary teammates.
“I think the first swing was kind of the big one,” Schwarber said. “I was just really trying to hit a line drive versus trying to hit the home run. Usually, that tends to work out, especially in games.”
The pressure shifted to Aranda. Needing one homer to tie, Aranda lifted a fly ball to the warning track before clanking a ball off the top of the brick wall in right field. His last swing produced a weak fly ball to left field, giving the NL the win at eight minutes to midnight.
“First time in history we got to do this,” Roberts said, “and I think it played pretty well tonight.”
By then, the early talk of the night was old news.
This year’s exhibition was the first game at the major league level outside of spring training to feature the automated ball-strike system, an expected precursor to MLB implementing the arrangement for all games beginning next season.
The rules on Tuesday were the same as the ABS challenge rules introduced during spring training. Each team received two challenges for the game. Only the pitcher, catcher or batter could request a challenge, and the request needed to be immediate without help from the dugout or other players on the field.
Five pitches were challenged Tuesday. The first was an 0-2 changeup that AL starter Tarik Skubal threw to San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado that plate umpire Dan Iassogna called a ball in the first inning. Skubal and his catcher, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, didn’t agree and challenged the pitch to make history. The call was overturned, ending Machado’s at-bat with a strikeout.
“I wasn’t even going to use them,” Skubal said. “But I felt like that was a strike, and you want that in an 0-2 count.”
Skubal became the first Detroit Tigers pitcher to start an All-Star Game since Max Scherzer in 2013. Opposite him was the other Cy Young favorite.
A year after starting the All-Star Game for the NL with 11 career outings on his résumé, Pittsburgh Pirates sensation Paul Skenes received the nod again to become the 10th pitcher to start consecutive All-Star Games and the first to accomplish the feat in his first two seasons. Last year, in Texas, Skenes walked one batter in his scoreless inning, a blip that he said “pissed me off” and pushed him to attack hitters for his All-Star Game encore.
“I was throwing every pitch as hard as I could,” Skenes said, “hoping that it landed in the strike zone.”
The result: two strikeouts on 100 mph fastballs to Tigers teammates Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene to open the contest. Skenes admittedly reached back seeking to strike out the side, but Yankees slugger Aaron Judge grounded out on another 100 mph pitch to conclude Skenes’ night.
“That’s what the All-Star Game’s for,” Skenes said. “Every hitter’s trying to hit a home run. We’re trying to strike everybody out.”
In a fitting transition, 11-time All-Star Clayton Kershaw relieved Skenes, 14 years his junior, in the second inning.
Raleigh, Tuesday’s Home Run Derby champion, welcomed the Dodgers’ Kershaw with a 101.9 mph line drive that Chicago Cubs left-fielder Kyle Tucker snagged with a sliding catch. Kershaw then struck out the Toronto Blue Jays‘ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking at an 87 mph slider on his sixth pitch, prompting Roberts to emerge from the NL dugout to take the ball from Kershaw and end what could have been the final All-Star Game appearance of his Hall of Fame career.
A legend selection for the game by commissioner Rob Manfred, Kershaw delivered a pregame speech in the NL clubhouse.
“We have the best All-Star Game of any sport,” said Kershaw, who on July 2 became the 20th pitcher to record 3,000 career strikeouts. “We do have the best product. So to be here, to realize your responsibility in the sport, is important. And we have Shohei [Ohtani] here. We have Aaron Judge here. We have all these guys that represent the game really, really well, so we get to showcase that and be part of that is important. I just said I was super honored to be a part of it.”
In the end, Kershaw was part of something never seen before.
ATLANTA — Clutching the glass bat given to the All-Star Game MVP, Kyle Schwarber walked through the National League clubhouse and chuckled to himself: He had just won the award without registering a single hit in the game.
“One good BP wins you a trophy these days,” Schwarber said.
What happened Tuesday night at the All-Star Game was unlike anything in the 94 versions that preceded it. Thanks to a rule change three years ago, baseball unveiled its version of penalty kicks in soccer or a shootout in hockey: Break a tie after nine innings via a Home Run Derby-style swing-off. And there was perhaps no one on the planet better to meet the moment than Schwarber, the Philadelphia Phillies slugger, who homered on all three of his swings in the impromptu batting practice session to propel the NL to the win (6-6, with a 4-3 edge in homers) in the Midsummer Classic.
For an All-Star Game that has grown relatively stale in recent years, larded with pitching changes and substitutions, the swing-off lent it an air of freshness and excitement. Amid all of the oddities — Atlanta Braves fans at a sold-out Truist Park cheering on a star from their hated rival, New York Mets players urging on Schwarber, all of it against the backdrop of the NL blowing a 6-0 lead — the one constant was Schwarber playing hero at a time of import.
As the American League blitzed back from a half-dozen-run deficit, the possibility of the swing-off was tantalizingly close — not just for the wide swath of fans who hadn’t known that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association had agreed to a sudden-death All-Star Game derby, but for the players who had stuck around until the end of the game to bear witness to a contest teeming with pressure — particularly for an exhibition.
The rules were simple: NL manager Dave Roberts and AL manager Aaron Boone selected three players and one alternate to take three swings. The team with the most home runs wins the game. As nice as it would have been for Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge to participate, when they made their choices in the days leading up to the game, both managers selected players they anticipated would be warm from finishing on the field: Schwarber, Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez for the NL, countering Brent Rooker of the A’s, Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena and Tampa Bay first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
Late in the game, with the possibility of a tie three outs away, Los Angeles Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann approached Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers and told him if the game did indeed go extra innings, he would need to hit for Suarez, who was removed from the game after being hit by a 100 mph pitch on his hand.
“You’re f—ing with me,” Stowers said.
“No, I’m seriously not,” Lehmann said. “This is real.”
“You’re kidding,” Stowers said.
“I’m serious,” Lehmann said.
“I thought I was the young guy getting teased,” Stowers later said. “Lo and behold, after the game ends, the managers meet up. And I think, ‘This might be for real.'”
Boone and Roberts had a finite group from which to choose. Around half the players were gone from the stadium, already headed home after a long, hot week here. Those who stuck around were rewarded with an urgent, entertaining gimmick that put players in a crucible, cranked the temperature and challenged them not to melt.
The format differed from the Home Run Derby the previous night, during which Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh won a contest that required stamina to make it through minuteslong rounds. The swing-off was different — reminiscent of the bonus rounds in the Derby during which fans get to admire home runs without the specter of another ball flying off the bat soon thereafter.
Ohtani wasn’t there. Neither was Judge. And it didn’t really matter, because the players were undeniably into the results, the sort of reaction that lent credibility to the format. After the AL tied the game on an infield hit from Steve Kwan with two outs and two strikes in the ninth, reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal — already in the clubhouse and in his street clothes — and Kansas City left-hander Kris Bubic were happy to follow the lead of Minnesota right-hander Joe Ryan, who said: “We gotta go out and watch this.”
They saw a show. And showmanship. And a comeback from a 2-1 deficit after Rooker hit two of his three swings out and Stowers parked one home run. And of course it was delivered by the ultimate showman, Schwarber. The 32-year-old introduced himself a decade ago with five home runs in his first postseason and then equaled that number in the 2023 NL Championship Series. All told, he has 21 homers in 69 postseason games. This was nothing, Schwarber being Schwarber, launching titanic shots in the most opportune of scenarios.
Even though he never takes batting practice on the field, Schwarber was perfectly thrilled to break that habit for the sake of the NL. With Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel throwing, Schwarber used a brand-new bat — a 99 mph Aroldis Chapman sinker had broken his lumber in the ninth inning — and then lined his first swing over the fence to center field. He followed with a high parabola 461 feet into right-center. His final swing was classic Schwarber, taking him down to his back knee, as if he were proposing the swing-off end right there with his third home run, down the right-field line.
It didn’t, not officially: Aranda, one of the breakout hitters of the first half, stepped up and proceeded to hit one ball off Truist Park’s brick wall in the outfield. He didn’t come close to a home run with two others. NL players rejoiced around Schwarber, leaving Alonso with nothing to do but celebrate the win.
“I don’t think I’d like that in-season if we lost on it,” San Diego Padres reliever Jason Adam said. “But for this setting, it was awesome.”
Almost everyone in both clubhouses shared Adam’s sentiment. The exigency of a limited-swing Derby — and the difficulty in going from game to batting practice with essentially a moment’s notice — transfixed players. And the audience, though understandably lamenting the absenteeism of some of the game’s biggest stars, mostly embraced the idea as novelty done right.
“There’s probably a world where you could see that in the future, where maybe it’s in some regular-season mix,” Boone said. “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if people start talking about it like that. Obviously, I don’t think that should happen, necessarily, or would at any time in the near future. But I’ve got to say, it was pretty exciting.”
Already Tuesday had offered an All-Star Game filled with firsts. The inclusion of the automated ball-strike challenge system saw borderline ball-strike calls overturned by a simple tap on the head. Amid an outing in which he threw nine of his 18 pitches at 100-plus mph, rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski unleashed an ungodly 98.1 mph slider so nasty it awed players in both dugouts.
In the end, it was an electric night for baseball, with Schwarber serving as the conduit. And when Jon Shestakofsky of the National Baseball Hall of Fame went to collect the bat Schwarber used to go 3-for-3 — a decade after Schwarber gave the Hall his bat used to collect the MVP award of the Futures Game — he noticed not a single scratch or sign that the bat had even been used.
“No ball marks when you flush it,” Schwarber said.
He had indeed — and in the process lent validity to the idea that the swing-off could be an entertaining way to cap All-Star week. Players around both clubhouses said they would consider signing up for the swing-off next year — and Stowers said the swing-off made him want to participate in the Home Run Derby in the future. The champion of this year’s Derby was perfectly content to share the spotlight with Schwarber.
“It’s good for the game, it’s good for baseball, it’s good for the fans,” Raleigh said.
And that’s the point, right? All of the consternation over Misiorowski making the NL team after just 25⅔ major league innings ignored a fundamental element of All-Star week — as much as it’s to reward the players, it’s to grow the game’s fandom, too.
Tuesday’s swing-off was baseball balm, surprisingly comforting, and sent the game into its second half with momentum. The trade deadline will provide that tension for the next two weeks and pennant races thereafter. The game is in a good place because it is evermore the realm of the unforeseen and unknowable.
We might not get many of these — only 13 past Midsummer Classics have gone to extra innings — which will only increase its charm, allowing the swing-off to become the most pleasant of surprises. As we saw Tuesday, there is glory in the pressure, the stress, the thrill of knowing you’ve got only three swings. It’s a beautiful little distillation of baseball, exceptional in portioned doses.
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