The New York Yankees are still stinging from the loss of generational superstar Juan Soto to their crosstown rival New York Mets in a head-spinning, 15-year deal that could end up paying the Dominican Republic native more than $800 million. But perhaps more important than the money, the Bronx Bombers continue to scramble to find players who can replace Soto’s offensive output.
Names such as Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman have all been linked to the Yankees as possible free agent signings. But so far, nothing has materialized for the club coming off a 94-win season in 2024 that culminated in the Yankees’ first trip to the World Series since 2009 and 41st in the team’s 122-year history.
Presumably, if they can get back to the World Series in 2025 the Yankees would prefer to win it this time. But the loss of Soto would appear to make any such positive outcome less likely. And as if the Yankees themselves were not already aware of that fact, one of their fiercest longtime tormentors took the opportunity to rub it in on Monday, with an unsparing message posted on Soto’s own Instagram page.
‘Big Papi’ Replies to Soto’s ‘New Chapter’ Instagram Reel
Soto posted a video reel of himself making his first public appearance as a New York Met on December 12. The video showed Soto in street clothes striding confidently into Citi Field, trying on his first Mets cap and gazing out over the field in the currently empty Flushing Meadows, New York, ballpark.
Soto headlined the Instagram reel with the comment, “A new chapter begins.” And that brought out one of Soto’s mentors and family friends â who also happens to be one of the Yankees’ toughest on-the-field rivals, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, formerly of the Boston Red Sox.
What was the message Ortiz sent to the Yankees in his reply to Soto’s reel? Just three words, including an elongated ellipse: “The……. Yankees lose.”
Ortiz then followed up with two “laughing” emojis.
Not only was Ortiz’s ruthless message a shot at the Yankees’ chances without Soto next season, “Big Papi” was also poking fun at now-retired Yankees radio announcer John Sterling and his signature call after every Yankees victory.
Sometimes known as the “Sterling Shake” because the legendary play-by-play man would deliver the call with not merely his voice but his whole body, Sterling ended every victorious Yankee game by belting out, “The Yankees win! Th-uuhhhhh… YANKEES win!”
Ortiz a Legendary Yankee Killer
Ortiz retired after the 2016 season at age 40, following a 20-year Major League Basebal career. he played his first six seasons in relative obscurity with the Minnesota Twins. Ortiz was initially signed by the Seattle Mariners in 1992, but four years later Seattle sent him to Minnesota as the “player to be named later” in an earlier trade. When the Red Sox picked him up in 2003 after the Twins released him, there was still not much expected from the lefty-swinging first-baseman.
That all changed when the Red Sox faced the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. After the Yankees took a 3-0 series lead, Ortiz led an incredible comeback with walk-off hits in games four and five at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox went on to win the series in seven games, then sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, giving birth to David Ortiz’s legend as the consummate clutch hitter and Yankee-killer.
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