Walking Juan Soto intentionally to get to Aaron Judge still has baseball people talking a day later

DETROIT – White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore was the subject of widespread mockery late Wednesday night and into Thursday.

And not because of his position as the dugout leader, which came after the mercy firing of Pedro Grifol, of a team trying to avoid matching, or surpassing, the 1962 Mets (40-120) for modern baseball failure.

No, it was his eighth-inning decision to, with Alex Verdugo on second after an RBI double and first base open, intentionally walk Juan Soto, ostensively choosing to pitch to Aaron Judge.

It paved the way for Judge’s 300th homer, which made the 32-year-old, when it comes to career games and at-bats, the fastest big-leaguer to reach that plateau.

But Sizemore’s decision – which caused a combination of amusement and incredulity in the Yankees’ clubhouse afterward – received at least some support, though “support” might not capture it exactly, from a straw poll of a handful of opposing managers and coaches contacted by Newsday on Thursday.

But first, Sizemore’s explanation.

“It’s just pick your poison. I'm not trying to get to Judge,” the former big-leaguer told the Chicago media after the 10-2 loss dropped the White Sox, now losers in 29 of their last 32 games (they did win the first game of the series, 12-2, on Monday night) to 29-93. “I've got a base open. (Soto) had four homers on us. I guess there is no solution or easy way out of that jam. Soto has definitely been the hotter of those two bats, even though Judge has been hot, too.”

While no manager or coach said they would have done the same – “No chance,” one rival manager said, adding later, “yeah, we’ve all been talking about it” – they understood Sizemore’s rationale.

“It really is pick your poison,” an NL bench coach said. “I don’t blame any manager making a call on Soto/Judge. The key is getting the guys out in front and behind them.”

Pressed on if he would choose to face Judge in that circumstance – or any this year – the coach laughed and said: “No. I can’t picture one.”

And while Sizemore passed the logic test to a degree, the “Soto has definitely been the hotter of those two bats” comment didn’t bear scrutiny.

Numbers in baseball can be – and often are – manipulated to back up almost any decision. But in looking at the last 29 games, Soto is hitting .353 with 13 homers and a 1.270 OPS. In his last 29 games, Judge is hitting .418 with 11 homers and a 1.393 OPS.

Judge’s historic homer unsurprisingly dominated clubhouse talk afterward.

But it shared the stage with the circumstances leading to it, with those wearing the road grays at times barely able to hold their laughter.

Starting with Aaron Boone, who said “wow” of his initial reaction upon seeing the intentional walk signal for Soto, who because of the Judge’s season had not previously been intentionally walked in 2024.

There was indeed a palpable sense of disbelief that swept the dugout, one still evident postgame.

“Shocked,” Soto said.

“I was really thinking they’re going to do back-to-back intentional walks when they walked me,” said Soto, who has six homers in his last four games. “I don’t know. It’s their strategy. I don’t know what they were thinking.”

Oswaldo Cabrera, who helped spark a late-inning outburst with some heads-up base running that allowed him to score from second on a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning that tied the score at 2-2, smiled widely and said he and his teammates were “surprised.”

Wells, whose two-out, two-run single in the seventh made it 4-2, said, “Yeah, that was crazy.”

Wells, who does deadpan humor as well as anyone in the clubhouse with the exception of up-and-down-from-the-minors reliever Ron Marinaccio, added: “It didn’t work out too well.”

And, in fairness to Sizemore, whose team in his brief time in charge has shown flashes of competitiveness it had not most of the season, challenging Soto or Judge hasn’t worked out too well for many pitchers.

As of Thursday, Soto was hitting .307 with 34 homers, 87 RBIs, 102 walks, 268 total bases and a 1.052 OPS.

Judge, hitting .333, led the majors in a slew of offensive categories, including homers (43), RBIs (110), total bases (301), on-base percentage (.467), slugging (.707), OPS (1.174). He is tied with Soto in walks with 102, though Judge has an MLB-leading 14 intentional walks compared to one for Soto.

But that one was for the books.

Judge or Soto. Soto or Judge.

Pick your poison.