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Yankees’ Pat Roessler knows Juan Soto, Aaron Judge — and more Yankee tradition than nearly anyone in uniform

Roessler was director of player development for Yanks from 2005-2014, assistant hitting coach in Washington from 2020-2023

TAMPA: In January of last year, Yankees manager Aaron Boone spent a few days in Tampa with his new coaching staff, bonding over baseball discussion. Big-time players Carlos Mendoza and Sean Casey were gone, and bench coach Brad Ausmus, a former big league manager, replaced them, so it was a different combination.

A member of the group with a less prominent name but a very significant résumé was also there. Possibly the only person on the planet to have coached both Juan Soto and Aaron Judge is 64-year-old assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler.

And as director of player development for the Yankees from 2005-2014, he brings institutional knowledge of deep-seated organizational philosophies. Both of those qualities mark him as a major asset to the big league team.

Judge is the most successful Yankees prospect from Roessler’s time on the farm (new hitting coach James Rowson, a favorite of Judge’s, was minor league hitting coordinator during those years). He left the organization to join Kevin Long as the Mets’ assistant hitting coach from 2015-17, and replaced Long in the top job in 2018.

He then served as assistant hitting coach in Washington from 2020-2023, working with Soto until the Nationals traded him to San Diego in July, 2022.

“I haven’t been around Judge recently,” says Roessler. “But Soto’s preparation is tremendous. He’s got a great routine. He has a very repeatable swing. He sees the ball better than 90 percent of the human race. He has great strike zone judgment, and he’s strong as hell. So he’s got a lot of good things working for him.”