Getty Yankees star Juan Soto
For days, we’ve been hearing that Yankees star Juan Soto spent last week in Southern California taking meetings alongside agent Scott Boras in an effort to see which teams and situations interested him as he tried to map out the next decade-plus of his MLB career. Top reporters suggested that Soto had done meet-and-greets, but that numbers were not discussed.
As Jon Heyman of the New York Post said, “The meetings were last week and this week. There were no offers from what I understand at these meetings. I think they felt like there were family members there from these teams and I think they thought that would be gauche to do the offers at that point.”
Maybe they did not talk numbers at the meetings, but a new report suggests that the Soto and his suitors did, in fact, talk money at some point last week. According to NJ.com, Soto has already gotten offers from four MLB teams.
Yankees 1 of 5 Teams Making Juan Soto Offers
The report comes from veteran beat writer Randy Miller, who wrote: “The Juan Soto sweepstakes is down to five teams that have offers on the table to the Yankees’ free agent outfielder, a person with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media on Monday.
“The Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Blue Jays presented contract offers to agent Scott Boras late last week, the source said.”
The fact that Soto has numbers in hand could speed up the entire decision-making process for Soto’s team. Presumably, there will be some negotiations, with teams adding counteroffers and Soto seeking option clauses to allow him to wriggle out of his contract if he so chooses.
The Yankees, then, could know what their fate is on Soto well ahead of the 2024 winter meetings in Dallas, which get underway on December 9. Many assumed that the timeline on Soto would follow along the path of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who left the Angels for the Dodgers last winter, and signed just after the winter meetings.
This process, though, is likely to move faster. That’s probably a good thing for the rest of the free agents on the board–there has been limited activity in MLB free agency as teams await Soto’s decision.
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney
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