Red Sox to Sign $89 Million Outfield Slugger if Juan Soto Bid Fails: Prediction

Getty Anthony Santander

The Boston Red Sox remain major players in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, making the generational outfielder a 12 year contract offer worth $600 million, according to one report. Other reports have put the Red Sox bid even higher than that. But what if Boston’s bid fails anyway?

Even the Red Sox may not be able to compete with a bid from the deep pocketed New York Mets. That doesn’t mean, however, that Boston chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow will give up the hunt for a power outfield bat. The team has already cut ties with Tyler O’Neill, who gave the Red Sox 31 home runs in just 411 at bats in 2024, leaving the Red Sox with a significant hole to fill when it comes to the long ball in the lineup.

No other Red Sox hitter swatted more than 28. That was Rafael Devers, while breakout outfield star Jarren Duran added 21 round-trippers.

Anthony Santander Out-Homered Soto in 2024

Soto hit a career high 41 in his one year with the New York Yankees in 2024. But according to a prediction by baseball insider Jim Bowden, a former general manager for the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds who now writes for The Athletic, the Red Sox could target a power-hitting outfielder who actually hit more home runs than Soto last year, one who would come at a fraction of the cost.

Anthony Santander, who has spent all eight of his Major League seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, hit 44 home runs last season with a slugging percentage of .506 and an OPS of .814. That falls well short of Soto’s .569 slugging number and .989 OPS.

But Santander, a native of Venezuela, will come at a substantially more manageable price tag than Soto. According to the sports business site SpoTrac, Santander’s expected market value should come in at $88,687,030 over a five-year deal. That is an average annual salary of $17.7 million — a fraction of the approximately $50 million that Soto appears to expect for each year of a contract that will run in double-digit years.

Red Sox Are Putting in a Serious Effort to Land Soto

Bowden added that the Red Sox front office “is ready to be decisive and more aggressive in the offseason again,” meaning that if they miss out on Soto it will not be due to a lack of seriousness or effort by Boston to add the slugger to the Red Sox roster. Instead, it would simply mean that another team, likely the Mets or Yankees, may be in a position to place an even higher bid for Soto.

Bowden also mentioned that he expects the Red Sox to pursue Teoscar Hernández, the 32-year-old outfielder who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win a World Series in his sole season with them in 2024. Hernandez, 32, hit 33 home runs for the Dodgers while slugging .501 and compiling an .840 OPS.

Hernandez has confirmed that the Red Sox showed interest in his in the 2024-2024 offseason as well, so it would not be unexpected for Boston to go back to the well on the Dominican Republic native this time around.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin