Juan Soto might be happy with the Yankees, but the Nationals should bring him home

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.

All season long, Juan Soto’s pending free agency has been a bit of an elephant in the room for the Yankees.

Soto has played incredibly well. He’s been the team’s second-best player only because Aaron Judge has been generational. The Yankees have made it clear they’d like to keep him around. And, for what it’s worth, Soto has also said he’s happy in New York.

But it’s also clear he’d be pretty happy back in D.C., too.

I’m just saying, Yankees fans! The guy misses the Nationals! Don’t shoot the messenger here. Soto is the one waxing poetic about his time in D.C. every time it gets brought up.

On Monday when he was asked to compare his old clubhouse with the Nats in 2019 to the one he’s currently in with the Yankees, he told reporters, “I’ll say nothing is gonna be like what we have with the Nationals in 2019 but definitely this is really close to what we have back then.”

He’s also still friends with the staffers at Nationals Park. On top of that, the crowd still loves him. And he, them. Look at this ovation he gets and how he soaks it all in.

Juan Soto gets a standing ovation in his return to Nationals Park pic.twitter.com/QWnze1VTOq

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 26, 2024

That looks like a guy who might just want that old thing back, folks. I’m not saying — I’m just saying!

This is like one of those rom-coms where we’re following a couple who broke up fresh out of college. They separate apart for a few years but serendipitously end up in the same party in the same city for a weekend and give each other googly eyes the entire time while everyone awkwardly watches. It’s not quite a “will they or won’t they” thing just yet but it’s definitely getting there and it’s kind of hilariously uncomfortable.

That’s what we’re looking at here. Soto misses D.C. and D.C. misses him back.

Soto has said before that he never wanted to leave the Nationals when the team traded him. To be fair, the deal was probably better for both sides. Soto has an impending $600 million payday coming up and the Nationals have now restocked their cupboard with young, cheap talent like James Woods and Dylan Crews. CJ Abrams has become an All-Star.

Washington’s rebuild has been accelerated and, soon, the team will be ready to compete again. Wouldn’t it be sweet if Soto was back around for it?

In all likelihood, Soto will probably remain a Yankee, or the Mets might offer him a ton of money. The Yankees should pony up the cash to keep him around and the batting ahead of a talent like Judge — arguably the best player in the league — will probably be too hard to pass up.

But there’s a chance, folks! There’s a chance.

The Rise of the Lynx

Our Meg Hall put together her weekly WNBA Power Rankings and the Minnesota Lynx are on a hot streak with six straight wins, including two over A’ja Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces.

It’s all driven by Napheesa Collier’s brilliant play, Meg writes. She might not win MVP, but she should at least be considered if she keeps this up.

“In Week 12 alone, Collier averaged 27 points and 10 rebounds on 67 percent shooting. It’s utterly wild stuff, and Minnesota is responding to Phee’s dominance on both ends of the floor by matching her energy.

I wouldn’t sleep on the Lynx. Minnesota might have found a path to the WNBA Finals.”

The New York Liberty are still the best team in the WNBA, but between the Lynx and the Sun, the gap between them just doesn’t feel as large as it once did.

READ MORE: Check out the full power ranking from Meg here

The hot seat is already heating up

College football season is just barely underway, but our Tyler Nettuno already has 10 head coaches on the hot seat this season, including a pretty big name: Ohio State’s Ryan Day.

Day’s tenure with OSU would likely be considered exemplary anywhere else. A 56-8 record is fantastic. But when three of those eight losses came from Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, the Buckeye faithful gets restless.

Here’s Tyler with more:

“Despite boasting a record that 99% of programs would trample over each other to acquire, he has come up short when it matters the most. The Buckeyes have lost three games in a row to Michigan after his predecessor, Urban Meyer, went 7-0 against the Wolverines. When you lose the only game on the schedule that the fans care about, it’s hard to fault them for feeling like you’re underachieving.

Of course, Day and Ohio State were a missed field goal away from upsetting Georgia in the CFP semifinal in 2022. If that kick sails through the uprights, the Buckeyes likely have a national title under Day and his name would be nowhere near these lists.

But that’s not the reality we live in, and Day is understandably shouldering massive expectations in 2024.”

Tread carefully, Mr. Day.

Quick hits: Cuts, cuts and more cuts … The Kelce cash out … and more

— We’ve got a running list of every team’s released NFL players, from vets to rookies, ahead of the league’s cutdown day.

— Here’s Christian D’Andrea with the most notable players from those cuts, too.

— Here’s Charles Curtis with more details on the Kelce’s deal with Amazon’s Wondery for the New Heights podcast.

— Caitlin Clark is magical. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.

— Dabo Swinney isn’t taking calls anymore. Here’s Cory again with more on that.

— Jerry Jones has the most delusional answer on why he should still be the Cowboys’ GM. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.

-Sykes