Rivalries Reborn

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Welcome back, rivalries. It’s about time.

Sure, baseball is never going to get back to the fist-fight blood rivalries of the past, the game overall is too soft now. There once was a time three teams called New York home, the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers. Those teams had a natural distaste for one another. That’s what made the rivalries so great.

And for the fans, you were either a Yankees fan, a Giants fan or a Dodgers fan. You had to pick a side. There was no middle ground.

Baseball thrives on animosity. The fans love it. So do the players – those players who really care about winning. In so many ways the players of today have grown way too friendly with one another. You see it every game, the hugs and the handshakes between opposing players.

That is going to change a bit this year, though, because of the free agent signings that will only strengthen rivalries. And that is a good thing. The players’ greed for making top dollar will help fan the flames of competition in 2025.

The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is on again, not only because the miserly Red Sox owners decided to finally spend some of the fans’ money they have been pocketing but also because where they spent it, bringing in Yankee public enemy Alex Bregman from the Astros.

Some wanted the Yankees to sign the celebrated third baseman from the 2017 World Champion cheating Astros, but that was never going to happen. Even Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner recognize that would be a slap in the face to most Yankee fans.

Bregman is right where he belongs – with the Yankees forever rival, the Red Sox. Once again, that is a really good thing for baseball.

Bregman is right where he belongs – with the Yankees forever rival, the Red Sox. Once again, that is a really good thing for baseball.

Just seeing Bregman in a Boston uniform will get the Bleacher Creatures going, along with every Yankee fan. But Bregman is just part of the star rivalry equation. In any other year he would be topping the list, but this is just not any other year.

This is the Year of the Soto.

Juan Soto arrived Sunday at Mets camp in Port St. Lucie less than four months after helping the Yankees get to the World Series and being Aaron Judge’s wingman, but those days are long gone.

Yankees Who?

Aaron Who?

The Mets think this is the beginning of a new era of winning for them. And wouldn’t you know it, on the same day Soto arrived at Mets camp, Yankees camp counselor Aaron Boone announced that Giancarlo Stanton is battling tendinitis in both elbows before Stanton’s spring training even started. and could be grounded once again at the start of the season.

Stanton is another injury victim of “ramping up’’ his offseason workouts. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Soto is a full-fledged Met now and even wore the Mr. Met spring training cap on his head for his arrival. He traded the interlocking NY for Mr. Met wearing sunglasses. So fitting because Soto thinks the Mets future is so bright Mr. Met must wear sunglasses – while over in Tampa the Yankees injury glass is already half full.

Now it is all about Soto’s Mets and his 15-year, $765 million new home in New York at Citi Field. He’s all in; he should be for at least $51 million a year for the next 15 years until Soto turns 40.

Juan Soto is the real Mr. Met now.

“I’m here to keep learning from them, how they play the game as the Mets and try to help them go all the way, that’s my goal, come here to add to the team, definitely add as much as I can, bring the good vibes, the good energy to help the team go all the way,’’ Soto told reporters Sunday. “I think we have a really good chance to go all the way.’’

The Mets going all the way. That’s a change.

That is something that has happened only twice in their franchise history – and the last time was way back in 1986. That is one tall order, but while Soto admitted it takes much more than one man to succeed he believes these Mets have the talent throughout the organization to be champions.

Baseball needed Soto to jump the Yankees ship and land in Queens. It had to happen. It would have been so boring if Soto had just collected the $760 million for 16 years the Yankees dangled in front of him. He took the money and ran to Queens and re-ignited a rivalry.

Soto, who won a World Series with the Nationals, is just across town and his games against the Yankees will bring out the best and the worst in New York fans. This will be fun to watch. And the fun begins Friday, May 16 at Yankee Stadium.

The beauty of all this is that Aaron Boone gets a much-needed motivational assist. Boone can leave his trusty Kumbaya Kit by the campfire and just point out that Soto essentially flipped off the Yankees. That is a great team building exercise and it covers up one of Boone’s biggest weaknesses, getting his team ready to play on any given day and stepping it up against the competition when needed.

Soto has given Aaron Judge and all the Yankees much motivational material.

In fact it doesn’t stop with Juan Soto. The Yankees have been kicked around since the World Series ended. They, of course, deserved it because of how the World Series ended and how the Yankees collapsed in Game 5 in that fifth inning and onward.

The Dodgers have been taking shots at them, rightfully so. Even bit-player Dodgers, but Dodgers still the same. And that helps bring the Yankees-Dodgers rivalry of old up to date. The Yankees have no excuses. The Dodgers kicked their butts and then danced on their grave. And if you are a fan of rivalries, that was glorious because the Yankees can no longer kid themselves.

Yes, they won the JV League – otherwise known as the American League pennant –beating the likes of the Royals and Guardians, but it got real in the World Series when the Yankees faced the Superstar Dodgers with the irony being they were beaten by stars like Freddie Freeman and bit players like Kiké Hernandez, who was in the middle of all the Game 5 fifth-inning action as Dave Roberts then slapped together a bullpen where a starter who was lost most of the year came in to save the game.

That starter, Walker Buehler, did not fit into the Dodgers’ plans and was jettisoned – only to land in Boston, of all places – adding yet another layer to the Yankees-Red Sox Renewed Rivalry.

Lo and behold, Bregman joins the party at $40 million per year, a crazy number especially if you consider the Red Sox had it all right in front of them years ago, but dumped their own superstar Mookie Betts because they did not want to pay him and got nothing in return. In the meantime, Betts collected two World Series rings with the Dodgers. Betts will make $30 million this season, $10 million less than Bregman. Betts is 32, Bregman will turn 31 next month.

Judge will make $40 million as well this season. In the postseason, Judge is a lifetime .205 hitter with 16 home runs over 58 games. Bregman is a lifetime .239 hitter with 19 home runs over 99 postseason games. Fenway Park fits Bregman’s swing, and that is a big reason he chose to take the Red Sox three-year deal for $120 million instead of the other monster offers made by the Tigers, who play in spacious Comerica Park – or the Cubs and the unique personality of Wrigley Field, which can be a burden on hitters when the wind is blowing in. Forget the Wrigley Ivy, the Green Monster is where it is at for Bregman who is a lifetime .375 hitter at Fenway. Interestingly enough, now that he is in the same AL East as the Yankees, Bregman is only hitting .207 at Yankee Stadium. At Comerica, Bregman is batting .227 and at a small sample size Wrigley Field owns a .231 average.

While Soto was having his press conference in Port St. Lucie, over in Fort Myers on Florida’s other coast, the coast situated on the Gulf of America, Bregman had his own Red Sox press conference.

The Red Sox believe Bregman will bring the boom back to Boston and their baseball boss Craig Breslow said as much Sunday, noting, “We’re getting a champion, a winner, a leader.’’

Well, you should be getting all that for $40 million per season and Bregman has two World Series rings of his own and said, “I’m a winning player. This is a winning organization. I plan on winning here.’’

The Red Sox have not been a winning organization lately, but that is why the Red Sox spent the $120 million on Bregman for three years.

Bregman was always one of my favorite players to interview, not only because of his knowledge of the game, his competitiveness, but he also did not run away from a fight so I fully expect him to fan the flames between the Yankees and Red Sox. He needs to prep by speaking to former Red Sox instigator Kevin Millar, who was a master at stirring it up between the Yankees and Red Sox, to see just how it is done in Boston and New York.

As Bregman, who has been in the playoffs every year since 2017, noted on Sunday to reporters in Fort Myers, “I honestly say all the time that pressure is a privilege, and you kind of up your game in pressure packed environments.’’

Pressure is a privilege.

The Rivalry is renewed and with the young Orioles not stepping up to the plate financially, the AL East desperately needs the Red Sox to be super relevant again. The AL needs some juice. The Yankees versus the cheapskate Guardians doesn’t cut it. The Yankees vs. the improving but financially challenged Royals doesn’t cut it. These are not yet the George Brett Royals, who slugged back. The Royals still need to prove they deserve to play with the big boys. The Bregman Red Sox can be a real rivalry again. Same for the Soto Mets.

The Yankees need to welcome it all and say “Bring it on.’’

Because yes, as Alex Bregman said, pressure is a privilege.