Cashman talks Soto's immediate impact: 'We'd love to have him for a long time'

By Cole Jacobson | April 21, 2024

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When Yankees general manager Brian Cashman promised that 2024 would be better after a “disastrous” 2023 season, he backed up his words by making the blockbuster move of the most recent MLB offseason: trading for Juan Soto from the Padres.

Of course, it’s still early. But with the Yankees entering Monday atop the AL East at 15-7, and with Soto making all types of plays in every phase of the game to get New York to that point, it’s no secret that the move appears to be a massive success.

And Cashman confirmed what the baseball world already knew when he gushed about Soto’s impact, both on and off the field, on an MLB Network Radio appearance on Sunday.

“It’s been a seamless transition here,” Cashman said about Soto, who leads the AL with a .456 OBP. “He comes in here, and everyone knows he was a great player, obviously on a Hall of Fame type track. … So we were obviously excited to have him, but you just don’t know about the personality. Some people are very closed off or very guarded, but he seems very open and fully engaged with our fans, with his teammates, so he’s letting everybody in. That’s not fake, it just seems to be who he is.”

For Soto, who is already a three-time All-Star, 2020 NL batting champion and four-time Silver Slugger Award winner all by age 25, the on-field achievements are impossible to deny. But Cashman has been equally, if not more, impressed by the right fielder’s impact on the team’s culture, one that has Cashman hoping the slugger stays around far beyond the expiration of his contract at the end of this season.

“It feels like he’s been here a long time because of how easily he’s allowed people in,” Cashman said. “We're lucky to have him, and certainly we’d love to have him for a long time.”

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