The New York Yankees are proud of their history, heritage and championships. They have several dynasties to their credit, and while their more modern teams have needed a sizable core of elite players to win it all, they have long had a dynamic duo capable of leading the charge. Whether it's short-term pairings like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris who competed for the home run record in 1961, icons of the franchise at different stages of their careers like Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra who teamed up for multiple rings, or the franchise's founding fathers in Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig have dominated for over a decade. There are so many times when you can point to these figureheads and say with confidence that they will pull through.

However, as I said at the beginning, this is largely a 20th century marvel. While champions of the past definitely had weapons across the roster, a larger and deeper league required a more balanced team, and superstars don't sit together in one place as often as they did back in the day. So when the opportunity arose for New York to sign Juan Soto in a blockbuster deal ahead of the 2024 season, there was no doubt – they had to jump at it. They gave up a good package of players in the deal, yes, and they only got the guarantee of a single season with Soto in pinstripes, but it made all the sense in the world. Get one of the best players in the game and pair him with the best batsman in the world already resident at your home stadium and watch them create magic on the field.

It's not like the Yankees predicted at the beginning of this year that things would go as well as they have, but deep down every fan certainly dreamed of this outcome. Soto and Aaron Judge, paired back-to-back in the lineup, both managed to put together the best seasons of their careers while leading the offense at times and having no one to rely on but themselves. While Judge fell just shy of the 62 home runs he hit in 2022, he still managed to hit a level overall that was above what he offered the team at the time, and Soto is in his first year in the Bronx is exploding, giving rise to drooling thoughts about what the 25-year-old might look like when he's just entering his prime.

Of course, that future remains incredibly unclear as to what uniform he will wield his bat in. The question of Soto's free agency has been hanging in the air since the moment the Yankees traded him, and reporters have regularly checked in on the good times and the bad to see if they could break his stone-cold silence on the subject. He stood his ground, insisting that he was just focusing on the here and now and enjoying this run in New York – all the while hoping that it would end in a ticker parade through the Canyon of Heroes where this one is could enjoy old legends.

We can only live in the here and now, and the present shows us that this duo has given us a historic campaign. Only one duo in Major League Baseball history has ever posted a combined wRC+ of 200 or more – Ruth and Gehrig in that famous Murderers' Row run of 1927 – and Judge and Soto narrowly missed out with a combined wRC+ of 199. They made the most of this regular season, and while this was supposed to be the highlight of their careers, it's remarkable that we were able to witness it in a clubhouse at the same time. It may be another century before the next Soto judge arrives, just as it did the next Ruth Gehrig, and who knows what the MLB landscape will look like then.

All of this is to say that, regardless of what October and the offseason that follows, these two have shaped both Yankees and baseball history. That being said, it is often the end result that defines someone's legacy, fair or not. After all, the Yankees have never shied away from their legacy, and for all the pride and glamour, it also puts the onus on the next generation to live up to their storied past, even as the challenge grows ever greater. The 12 teams competing for the World Series this year all have a good chance of winning the title – it's a chaotic field with some weak favorites but no outright kings to dethrone. The Yankees are one of those favorites, but to actually make it, some of the chaos may have to work in their favor.

Nothing is guaranteed this October, but nothing was guaranteed for this team from the start. They're betting big on putting two of the game's best together to push them over the edge, even if they only had one chance. Flags fly forever, and the only way to be satisfied this offseason that they made the right choice is to do the work here and now. Judge and Soto have cemented their legacy this season as one of the best pairings the game has ever seen, but they can continue to cement their claim The Duo of the 21st century by lifting the trophy.