KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The template for what is possible for Juan Soto’s 2024 Yankees is Juan Soto’s 2019 Nationals.
Because those Nats were certainly not gnats. They were top-heavy with stars, and what distinguished the only champion in that organization’s history is the stars showed up at night.
The two best October hitters for that Washington team were Soto and Anthony Rendon. The two best pitchers were Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
That quartet of elite players performed in the biggest moment on the grandest stage through four rounds and carried the chorus along with them.
Through two games of an AL Division Series, the Yankees had been way too chorus dependent. The best at-bats had consistently come from Gleyber Torres. The best pitching from their Bullpen Anonymous group — Really, if Jake Cousins and Tim Mayza walk down a street, would you know it is not Tim Weaver and Luke Hill? Did I get you there? I know, it’s Luke Weaver and Tim Hill. Just seeing if you are paying attention.
Because if you are, you know these Yankees often go the way of their stars. They are top-heavy, and when that top-heavy group thrives, so do the Yankees. When they don’t — if a baseball game breaks out when tactics and execution are most vital — the Yankees struggle.
These Yankees are Mike Tyson. They are full of might and fury, not craft and guile. And through the first two games, their knockout artists — Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon — had really let the team down. The Royals had outplayed the Yankees for most of the 18 innings, and — in many respects — the Yanks were fortunate to be tied one game apiece heading into Wednesday night’s Game 3.
Soto had a diplomatic answer about the 2019 Nationals, noting, yes, “Our big stars had big moments,” but then added broadly, “At the end of the day, it’s all about the whole team. We can’t lean on one player, that he’s going to do everything for us to go all the way. We’ve got to do it as a team.”
And, yes, those Nationals certainly had valuable contributions from Patrick Corbin (especially in relief) and Howie Kendrick and Adam Eaton. But Soto had a .927 OPS that postseason with three doubles and five homers. Rendon had a 1.003 OPS with seven doubles and three homers. They combined for 39 percent of the team’s playoff RBIs.
Five years ago Wednesday, Rendon homered leading off the eighth inning against Clayton Kershaw, and Soto, who had singled in the first run, followed with a homer to tie a decisive Division Series Game 5. The Nationals eliminated the Dodgers via Kendrick’s 10th-inning grand slam.
That postseason Scherzer and Strasburg combined to start 10 games. They personally won eight, and the Nats won all 10 (and, remember, it took them 12 wins to capture the title).
Both also threw a game in relief — Strasburg coming into the singular wild-card game started by Scherzer. That was the one in which the Nationals beat David Stearns’ Brewers, the winning run scoring when Soto’s eight-inning single squirted by Trent Grisham to help bring home three runs when Washington had been trailing 3-1.
The Nats then beat Alex Verdugo’s Dodgers — though Verdugo had an oblique injury and didn’t play before taking out Harrison Bader’s Cardinals in the NLCS, then keeping Cole from winning a World Series as the Nationals outlasted the Astros in seven games.
Cole was hit hard — 11 balls of at least 95 mph — in not pitching well in this Division Series opener. He is the scheduled Game 4 starter and said he “was looking forward to getting another crack at it.”
Soto had three hits in the opener to help the Yankees win, 6-5. But Judge was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Soto and Judge then went a combined 0-for-6 with three strikeouts in Game 2, and the Yankees lost, 4-2, as Rodon lost his energy and control in the fourth inning, allowing four runs.
Judge, Soto, Cole and Rodon are four of the five highest-paid Yankees this season. Giancarlo Stanton completes the top five, and he took early batting practice alone before Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium after a 1-for-8 two games in The Bronx.
That quintet made $166 million this season — more than the entire Royals payroll and roughly 55 percent of the entire Yankees payroll. Again, this is a top-heavy team. And either their stars are going to awaken, or the Yankees will not come out on top.
