Yankees teammates had no contact with $765 million star since season ended

As if seeing Juan Soto in a blue-and-orange Mets hat wasn’t going to hurt New York Yankees’ fans enough, the most coveted free agent delivered a disheartening comment on his connection with the Yankees.

While GM Brian Cashman and principal owner Hal Steinbrenner were going all out to try and resign the 26-year-old slugger, apparently his former teammates were not doing their part to recruit him back into the clubhouse.

Yankees captain Aaron Judge had already admitted he was giving Soto space during the free-agency process, based on his experience going through it the previous year. But at his introductory press conference at Citi Field, the Mets’ $805 million man said he has not spoken to any of his former Yankees teammates.

“I haven’t talked to any of those guys,” Soto said. “We talked through playoffs and at the end of the playoffs, but during this process. I haven’t talked to any of those guys. I haven’t been in touch with anybody.”

Judge’s reason for not reaching out was that while he was a free agent a year ago, he just wanted to keep a tight circle with his family.

Soto, however, said he will always be friends with Judge.

“Yeah, why not? Definitely, at the end of the day, we’re still friends. We’re still cool,” he said. “Everything that happens is just business, but the relationship we created last year is gonna stay there forever.”

Still, in a bidding war that ended with a historic con

contract and one the Yankees should have had some advantage after Soto spent a year with them, it seems strange that none of his former teammates reached out.

At the time Judge said he had not called or texted Soto, several former players pointed out that was unusual.

Former big league catcher Erik Kratz, who played with Judge in 2020, wondered about the relationship in the clubhouse.

“Maybe they didn’t connect over the year. If somebody’s my boy, I am hounding him to stay with my team,” Kratz said. “I am hounding him to be like, ‘Hey, we can’t screw this up.’ And sometimes when guys come over for one year, they don’t always make that connection for one season.”

Todd Frazier said he would have called every day.

“They should bring Judge back into a meeting,” Frazier said. “They should do everything possible to get this guy to go to the Yankees. … I’d be calling every day. ‘Hey, can we talk again? What do you got going on?’ … I’m not saying it’s wrong what he’s doing, but I think, I would do a little bit more. I would try at least once. I wouldn’t berate him and hound him as much, but you know … it’s give him a text, ‘Yankees?’ ‘Hey, the Boogie Down still loves you.’”