A year after Juan Soto and Aaron Judge gave New York a 1-2 punch the likes of which hadn’t been seen in decades, they might be setting up an unprecedented rivalry.
With Soto now in Queens in the first season of a 15-year, $765 million deal and Judge about to enter year No. 3 of his nine-year, $360 million contract with the Yankees, the duo is set up to go head-to-head in the city for at least the next seven seasons, with both in right field.
And while crosstown teams have featured superstars before — from MVP candidates Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly in the mid-1980s to Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider in center in the mid-’50s and Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra behind the plate earlier in the decade — none of those former New York stars played together prior to those seasons, as Judge and Soto did last year when their production drew comparisons to Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
Judge ended up winning his second AL MVP, with Soto finishing third, just behind Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr.
