How Yankees (and Juan Soto!), Mets can change their fortunes this winter - ESPN

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally posted Dec. 6 and has been updated based on the Yankees acquiring Juan Soto in a trade with the Padres.

A season that began with hopes of a Subway World Series — with Mike Piazza throwing out a first pitch at Citi Field and Roger Clemens throwing out a first bat at Yankee Stadium — ended up as the most miserable baseball season in the Big Apple since the early 1990s.

The New York Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and finished with their worst winning percentage since 1992. The New York Mets, with the highest payroll in history, floundered to an 87-loss season and traded away Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

«It was awful. We accomplished nothing,» Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said at the team's end-of-season news conference. «It felt like a losing season,» said general manager Brian Cashman, as the team barely kept alive its 30-year-streak of winning seasons with an 82-80 record. The Mets, meanwhile, fired manager Buck Showalter, hired former Brewers executive David Stearns to run baseball operations and owner Steve Cohen wrote an apology letter to season-ticket holders.

Both organizations are under pressure to do something big this offseason — as in multiple noteworthy transactions. This is New York, where you're expected to win today and be better tomorrow. The first major move finally dropped, with the Yankees acquiring Juan Soto (and Trent Grisham) from the San Diego Padres in a blockbuster move that they needed to make. They also traded for Alex Verdugo. Let's dig into those moves and see what else the Yankees and Mets have to do.

OK, three issues on the state of the Yankees:

1. They needed offense, especially left-handed