Maybe Stephen A. Smith needs to actually watch a Yankee game or two.
The ESPN personality made a rather egregious error that could have been avoided with two seconds of research Wednesday on “First Take” when he claimed Aaron Judge’s potentially historic season stems in part from Juan Soto hitting behind him in the Yankees’ lineup.
“But you do got Juan Soto batting behind you. They can’t get around you a little bit,” Smith said Wednesday. “They gotta pitch to the brother, you understand what I’m saying, because you’ve got Soto waiting in the wings. So, all of those things facilitate Aaron Judge being who he is.”
There’s just one little — OK, massive — problem with that theory.
Soto has hit second in all 130 of his starts this season.
Judge has hit third in all 132 of his starts this season.
There has not been a single instance where Soto was “waiting in the wings” behind Judge during a game this year, with, in fact, the opposite being the case.
If anything, Soto’s amazing season that could help him land a historic contract this offseason is being boosted by having Judge hitting behind him since pitchers don’t want batters on for the AL MV favorite.
Soto already has tallied a career-best 37 homers and is on pace for his highest OPS of any non-Covid-shortened season of his career.
The other palm-to-the-face element of Smith’s remark is that it’s that lack of protection for Judge that actually makes his season more impressive.
The Yankees have gone through stretches where they lacked a solid cleanup hitter to protect Judge, especially during the time between when Giancarlo Stanton landed on the injured list and Austin Wells became a viable bat. That gives pitchers reason to avoid giving Judge anything to hit.
Judge has still delivered, though, with his 51 homers giving him a chance to match or potentially break his 2022 AL record of 62 homers.