Yankees News: Juan Soto to Wear No. 22 Jersey After Trade from Padres

The Bronx has a new No. 22 roaming the outfield.

The New York Yankees announced Juan Soto will wear No. 22 with the club for the 2024 season after they acquired him from the San Diego Padres.

This should come as no surprise given the fact Soto has worn No. 22 throughout his MLB career.

This should come as no surprise given the fact Soto has worn No. 22 throughout his MLB career. Harrison Bader last wore No. 22 for the Yankees before being waived midway through last season.

New York traded pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez and catcher Kyle Higashioka to the Padres for Soto and Trent Grisham earlier this month. The blockbuster trade was a long time coming, with the Yankees long thought to be the favorite to land Soto as San Diego looks to shed payroll.

The move is not without risk, as Soto can become a free agent at the end of the 2024 season. Soto's agent, Scott Boras, almost always takes his clients to free agency to extract the best possible contract, and Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million deal may have forever altered baseball's contractual structure.

Even after learning of Ohtani's historic deferments, the starting price for Soto is almost certainly more than $500 million at this point.

"The culture we have with the Yankees that we project constantly is our intent to win," Cashman told reporters last week. "We're here. We're in it to win it. So that's messaging that's constantly being reinforced.

"So I think that's a recruiting beacon for anybody. I know the question is specifically about Juan Soto, but I think we certainly want to try to always under the Steinbrenner leadership to make this the mecca of baseball."

Soto will have quite a bit to live up to in wearing No. 22. Robinson Cano, Roger Clemens, Jimmy Key, Allie Reynolds and Marius Russo have all made the All-Star team wearing the number.