With whom Mets manager Carlos Mendoza recently called “one of the best right-handed hitters in the history of the game,” Yankees slugger Aaron Judge up to bat and the Mets up 2-1 with two outs and no one on base, Díaz knew he “wasn’t going to give up a bomb.”

It speaks to Juan Soto’s brilliance that no one or even two players were going to be able to do enough in his wake to make the Yankees offense as good, much less better, than last season.

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge said that watching ex-teammate Juan Soto leave in free agency for the New York Mets last offseason "definitely stung," per comments to reporters Thursday (h/t Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media).