Kyle Higashioka returns to The Bronx: 'Seems like I never left'

Kyle Higashioka was back at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for the first time since he was sent to San Diego as part of the trade that brought Juan Soto to The Bronx.

“In some ways, it seems like I never left,’’ said Higashioka, now with the Rangers, who did not play in the Yankees’ 5-2 series-opening win.

Higashioka, 35, was talking about seeing familiar faces around the ballpark, but he could have been referring to Aaron Judge, his longtime former teammate.

The two overlapped at various points in the Yankees minor league system and then with the Yankees in the majors from 2017 until Higashioka’s trade to the Padres following the ’23 season

after 16 years with the organization.

So not many players have seen Judge’s rise through the game from up close more than Higashioka.

“I would say it’s incredible, but from playing with him for so long, you almost assume it’s something that’s possible,’’ Higashioka said of Judge’s start, which saw the right fielder leading

the majors in just about every offensive category.

“So it’s not that incredible because it’s him,’’ said Higashioka, now Jonah Heim’s backup in Texas. “It’s cool to see.”

Higashioka was a Yankee during Judge’s 62-homer season in 2022 and then faced him as an opponent last year for the first time, when the Yankees visited San Diego last May.

“For him to continue to get better every single year, especially after you think it can’t get better than 62, he’s one of the greatest ever,” Higashioka said of Judge, who went 2-or-4 with a

two-run homer in Tuesday’s win.

Though the catcher wasn’t in the lineup, he was tasked with game-planning against Judge on May 26 last season with the Padres.

Judge singled in his first at-bat of that game against Joe Musgrove, flied to center in the fourth inning and struck out in the sixth before Higashioka was removed for a pinch hitter.