For the first time since Juan Soto traded in his Yankees pinstripes for Mets’ blue and orange, the two crosstown rivals went head-to-head on Monday, and while it was only a spring training game, it was also a shot for both sides to take a couple of light-hearted jabs at one another.
“I told him he looks terrible in that uniform,” Aaron Boone said with a laugh prior to the game. “It’s good to see him. Obviously, Juan was great for us, but just as important, he was a great guy in our room, a great guy in our clubhouse. Honestly, it was actually really good to see him and just catch up for a minute.
“But yeah, I thought he looked terrible in those colors.”
While Boone was clearly joking (at least for the most part), there’s surely some frustration from the Yankees side that Soto, who helped lead the Yankees to the American League pennant last season, moved across town to the Mets on the largest contract in professional sports history.
“You know, it’s just Booney,” Soto, with a smile, said after the game of his former manager’s ribbing. “You know he probably don’t like the orange and blue. But, it is what it is.”
“For me, it’s a different feeling facing those guys out there who we went through last year. It was really fun experience, because, you already know their mindset and how they are. And facing [Marcus] Stroman, a guy who I was in touch with last year and we have good conversations in the past, so it was pretty cool.”
Soto went 0-for-2 at the plate as the Mets and Yankees ended up playing to a 6-6 tie. And while the game was in Port St. Lucie, there were plenty of Yankees fans on hand, and Soto heard a mixed reaction from the crowd when he came up to bat for the first time.
The reception for Juan Soto with Mets and Yankees fans at Clover Park pic.twitter.com/1PvTB1We0H
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 24, 2025
“I think it was a lot of cheers out there, so I take all that and I was happy for my fans,” Soto said.
While there were more than 8,000 fans on hand at Clover Park on Monday, Soto knows the reception will be a bit different the first time he goes back to the Bronx, which will be a weekend series in mid-May.
“You know, Yankees fans, they can surprise you with anything, so I’m expecting the worst,” he said with a laugh.
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