MLB Playoffs: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto are the October duo the Yankees need

The New York Yankees pride themselves on history, legacy, and championships. They have multiple dynasties to boast of, and while their more modern teams needed a sizable core of elite players to win it all, they have a lengthy history of having a dynamic duo capable of leading the charge. Whether it's short-term pairs like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris racing to the home run record in 1961, icons of the franchise at different stages of their careers in Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra aligning for several rings, or the founding fathers of the franchise in Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig dominating for over a decade, there's so many points in time where you can point to these figureheads and say with confidence that they'll pull through.

As I said at the start though, this is mostly a marvel of the 20th century. While those champions of the past definitely had weapons throughout the roster, a bigger and deeper league has necessitated a more balanced team, and superstars don't get bunched up in one place as often as they did back then. So when the opportunity arose for New York to land Juan Soto in a blockbuster deal ahead of the 2024 season, there was no second-guessing it – they had to go for it. They gave up a good package of players in the deal, yes, and they got only the guarantee of a single season with Soto in pinstripes, but it made all the sense in the world. Get one of the best players in the game and pair him with the best hitter in the world already residing in your home ballpark, and watch them create magic on the field.

It's not like the Yankees went into this year predicting that it would go as well as it has, but deep down every fan surely dreamed of this outcome. Paired back-to-back in the lineup, Soto and Aaron Judge have both managed to put together career-best seasons while at times carrying the offense with no-one but themselves to rely on. Judge, while falling just short of the 62 home runs he hit in 2022, has managed to still produce at an overall level above what he gave the team back then, and Soto has exploded in his first year in the Bronx prompting salivating thoughts as to what the 25-year-old could look like as he only begins to enter his prime.

That future, of course, remains incredibly murky as to which uniform he'll be swinging his bat in. The question of Soto's free agency has been hanging in the air from the moment the Yankees traded for him, and reporters have periodically checked in through the good times and the bad to see if they could crack his stony silence on the topic. He's held firm, insisting that he's only focusing on the here and now and enjoying this run in New York – hoping all the while that it'll end in a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes that those old legends got to revel in.

We can only live in the here and now as well, and the present tells us that this duo has given us a historic campaign. Only one duo in the history of Major League Baseball has ever posted a combined wRC+ of 200 or more – Ruth and Gehrig, in that famous 1927 Murderers' Row run – and Judge and Soto just missed out with a combined 199 wRC+. They made the absolute most of this regular season, and even if this does wind up being the peak of their careers it's remarkable that we got to witness it happen simultaneously in one clubhouse. It may take another century to get the next Soto-Judge, as it did to get the next Ruth-Gehrig now, and who knows what the landscape of MLB will look like then.

All of this is to say that, regardless of what October will bring and then the offseason afterwards, these two have put their stamp on both Yankees and baseball history. That being said, the end result is what often defines someone's legacy, fairly or not. The Yankees have never shied away from their legacy, after all, and for all the pride and glamor, it also puts the onus on the next generation to live up to their storied past even as the challenge grows rapidly in size. The 12 teams vying for the World Series this year all stand a decent shot at taking the title – it's a chaotic field with some soft favorites but no outright kings to dethrone. The Yankees are one of those favorites, but actually pulling it off might require some of that chaos going in their favor.

Nothing is guaranteed this October, but nothing has been guaranteed for this team from the start. They bet big on getting two of the best in the game together to push them over the edge, even if they would only get one shot at it. Flags fly forever, and the only way to feel satisfied going into this offseason that they made the right choice is to get the job done here and now. Judge and Soto have cemented their legacy this season as one of the best pairings the game has ever seen, but they can cement their claim as the duo of the 21st century by being the ones to lift the trophy.