"He's just an amazing baseball player": Juan Soto on sharing All-Star outfield with Aaron Judge as Yankees' stars earn mid-season honors
Juan Soto will join his Yankees captain Aaron Judge to start in the outfield for the American League team, who play the National League team Globe Life Field for Mid Summer Classis i.e. 2024 MLB All-Star Game on July 16. The MLB announced the starters for both leagues on Wednesday, and it has two of the best AL ballplayers in Soto and Judge.
On learning about his selection for the All-Star event after the defeat to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, Soto was happy knowing he will share the field with No. 99 at the All-Star weekend.
"He's (Aaron Judge) always great," Soto said. "He's an All-Star. He's just an amazing baseball player. I'm more than happy to share the field every day with him. And now in an All-Star game, it's going to be even better."
"It means a lot, you know. It's a lot of hard work that I've been putting on and everything. I've been grinding a lot. I finally got my first star, so it's pretty cool," Soto added.
This will be Juan Soto's fourth straight All-Star selection (2021-24) as he continues to wreak havoc in the majors since debuting in 2018 for the Washington Nationals.
Meanwhile, Yankees captain Judge, who received the most votes in the first phase of AL All-Star voting, will be playing his sixth All-Star game.
Yankees manager lauds first-time pairing of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in the same lineup
Ahead of Wednesday's game against the Reds, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was all praise for Soto who has been everything that was promised to the Yankees when they traded him from the San Diego Padres ahead of this season.
More so, he sees the pairing of Soto and Aaron Judge destructive for any opposing team.
“He’s (on Juan Soto) a generational hitter — we’ve seen that kind of phrase thrown around him, and I think that rings true,” Boone said. “His level of at-bat day in and day out [stands out]. And then when you pair it with him and Aaron back-to-back, that’s something that I don’t think many of us have ever seen.
“It’s just as quality of an at-bat as you’re going to face anywhere at any time, and just his understanding of who he is in the batter’s box is pretty impressive.” [via NY Post].
This season, both Juan Soto and Aaron Judge have been making their cases for AL MVP honors. While Judge is leading the majors with 32 home runs, 83 RBIs and an 1.158 OPS, Soto is batting .300 with 20 homers and a .997 OPS.