In the aftermath of Juan Soto signing the richest contract in baseball history, much news has risen regarding where teams were before the signing and their future plans. Strap in because the winter meetings are here, and teams that missed on Soto will be aggressive.
Given that at least four teams were in the neighborhood of $700 million, fans are going to expect their respective teams to allocate those funds elsewhere. That means overpaying if you have tom and not having excuses if you come away with nobody that moves the needle forward for you in 2025. There’s much to discuss regarding the fallout of Soto signing with the New York Mets.
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In a piece released by The Athletic (subscription required), it is mentioned that the Mets knew the Yankees would always be there until they could finally flip him from the Bronx to Queens. Check out the linked in-depth article, as some essential notes pertain to the whole Soto ordeal.
“Soto’s familiarity with the Yankees was perceived to be a significant hurdle, a Mets official said at the outset of their recruiting efforts. In this person’s view, Soto was either going to take the money of Mets owner Steve Cohen, or simply use the Mets to drive up the price ahead of his return to the Yankees,” the piece read.
The Yankees reportedly wound up offering $760 million to Soto, but he ultimately signed with the Mets for just $5 million more and one year of contract. The money was close enough that if Soto wanted to be with the Yankees over the Mets, that amount likely wouldn’t sway him away.
I even speculated that Soto was using the Mets as leverage, but they truly had the upper hand all along. Soto to the Mets brings some balance to the National League after the Dodgers have continued to add to their superteam this winter.
2. Yankees relief after losing Juan Soto should be taken with a grain of salt
In a Reddit post, some believe the Yankees are secretly somewhat relieved not to have to pay one player over $50 million per season for the next 15 years. Personally, there’s no way they’re relieved they missed on Soto just because it means they can fill multiple spots on the roster with the same money. Missing out on Soto was a gut punch to the Yankees organization, which finally made it back to the World Series but is now losing its second-best player.
The problem behind the logic of ‘now you can sign multiple big names instead of one’ is that, just like we saw with Juan Soto, you aren’t guaranteed to get anybody in free agency just because you’re willing to spend the money.
Even when that player was just on your team, and you enjoyed a deep postseason run. If the Yankees are lucky, they will still land a couple of high-end free agents, but it’s from a lock. They wouldn’t have tried that hard if they didn’t want Soto. You don’t offer $700+ million to save face by showing your fanbase you tried.
Even though the Boston Red Sox swung and missed on landing Soto, you still have to give them a tip of the cap for offering up as much as they did. According to this report, the Red Sox getting up to $700 million – $200 million over their initial offer – indicates that they were dead serious about landing the superstar. Boston was not trying to waste his time, so much so that they let other free agent targets, such as Blake Snell and Tyler O’Neill, sign elsewhere because they were committed to landing Soto before anything else.
Commendable as Craig Breslow and the Red Sox’ front office was in their efforts, they now have a tricky offseason to navigate ahead of them. They must land a top starter, either via trade or free agency.
Making matters worse is that the Red Sox’ division rival, the New York Yankees, will be more bitter about losing Soto and will be after many of the same targets as Boston. The Red Sox must keep that aggressive spending mindset for a successful offseason.
