The Dodgers did not enter this winter as the frontrunner for Soto. But it should come as little surprise that they are in the mix.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are next up on the list of suitors to meet with All-Star outfielder Juan Soto, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Monday. The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday and first reported by MLB.com, joins the Dodgers with the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and New York Yankees among clubs to meet with Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, in Southern California in recent days.
The Dodgers did not enter this winter as the presumed frontrunner for Soto’s services. But it should come as little surprise that Los Angeles is in the mix, even after committing $1.4 billion last offseason to land Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glansow, Teoscar Hernández and others.
Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract last winter was structured with deferrals to lower its impact on the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax figure (which is a little more than $46 million annually, rather than $70 million) and his off-field impact gives the reigning World Series champions enough cash to continue to operate at the top of the market.
The Dodgers are also expected to be in the mix for some of the top free-agent arms in the sport, from Corbin Burnes to Blake Snell to Max Fried and yes, Roki Sasaki.
Los Angeles also has a sudden need for an outfielder. Hernández is a free agent, though there is mutual interest in a reunion between the two sides after the Dodgers gave him a qualifying offer. Then there’s Mookie Betts, who is expected to move to the infield next season, which only underscores a potential need.
The Dodgers’ brass has spoken often about creating flexibility and opportunities to pounce on superstar talents; after all, they rarely come available. The philosophy allowed them to trade for and extend Betts. It allowed them to wait out Freddie Freeman’s market in free agency. It made them an appealing landing spot for Ohtani to start last winter’s spending spree.
Now, another star is out on the open market. Soto, with an eye-popping resume (four-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, World Series champion) at just 26 years old, presents a rare opportunity that the Dodgers already looked into when the Washington Nationals traded him at the 2022 deadline.
Although they’re not seen as the likeliest of landing spots, the Dodgers loom large over Soto’s process.
(Photo of Juan Soto: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
