New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has the easy job of having two superstar, game-changing bats, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, at his disposal.
The harder part might be figuring out where exactly they’ll slot into the starting nine.
On Foul Territory, Boone provided a first glimpse into his game plan when it comes to filling out the Yankees’ lineup card come Opening Day 2024, projecting Soto at No. 2 and Judge at No. 3.
“I think about it all the time,” Boone said. “We’ll just see… how that shakes out. I think you start with the idea that hopefully, Judge and Soto are hitting back-to-back over 150 times this year.”
Judge has taken a bulk of his at-bats at the No. 2 hole throughout his career — and he’s plenty dangerous at the spot. In 1,971 at-bats (he has 589 at-bats in the No. 3 spot), he owns a .992 career OPS.
His OPS in the third spot is at an All-Star level, too, at .926. The full-season equivalent of plate appearances in that spot suggests there wouldn’t be much of a drop-off with 45 home runs and 105 RBI in that position.
Soto, on the other hand, has shown far more success batting third compared to where Boone is initially projecting him at second. In 1,070 at-bats in the three-hole, he has a .986 career OPS. Batting second, it drops to .817.
Boone’s order, however, does provide the opportunity for the Yankees to deploy an alternating righty-lefty batting order should DJ LeMahieu re-assume lead-off responsibilities following a down season.
“We’ll see how the lead-off spot shakes out,” Boone said. “I’m excited about how DJ finished the season last year and the winter he’s had. He’s in Tampa already getting rolling.”
He also mentioned Gleyber Torres as an option to lead off along with lefty Alex Verdugo, whose inclusion at the top of the order would then allow Boone to swap Judge and Soto into their usual roles if this is, in fact, his formula.
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