Back on December 13, just five days after agreeing to sign the richest contract in baseball — and professional sports — history, joining the New York Mets on a 15-year, $765 million deal, Juan Soto decided the time was right to take a shot at the fans of his former team, the New York Yankees.
Belittling Yankee fans’ commitment to their team — at least, Yankee fans took it that way — at his introductory Citi Field press conference, Soto confidently declared that New York City has “been a Mets town for a long time.”
New Mets Continue to Take Shots Across Town
Indicative of how Yankee fans felt about Soto, one such fan with a national media platform, former ESPN and NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen used that platform to lash back at Soto.
“Dude, get out of here. Get out of here with that noise,” Eisen inveighed on his Rich Eisen Show broadcast. “It is just like here in Los Angeles. Clipper town? Get out of here. It’s a Mets town? Yeah, in your head.”
Now the same thing has happened all over again, this time with the Mets’ newest free agent acquisition, one not nearly as high-profile or expensive as Soto. And while Soto spent all of 2024 playing for the Yankees, left-handed reliever A.J. Minter, formerly of the Atlanta Braves, had reportedly been eyed by the Yankees as an addition to their bullpen. The Yankees bullpen remains without a single lefty pitcher, even as their first spring training game is just over three weeks away.
The Mets signed Minter on January 23 to a two-year, $22 million deal. The 31-year-old southpaw compiled a 3.28 ERA in 284 appearances over eights seasons with the Atlanta Braves. He also took home a World Series ring with Atlanta in 2021, allowing four runs in 12 postseason innings that year. In his playoff career with Atlanta, he struck out 36 in 25 innings.
