Free agent superstar Juan Soto met with billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen on Saturday in California as the Amazins try to nab the top player in this offseason’s free agent class.

Cohen, along with Mets president David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza, met with Soto and his agent Scott Boras at an “undisclosed location” on the West Coast, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Sources told Heyman the meetings went well. The Mets are reportedly “hopeful” about their odds of landing Soto. Boras and Soto will meet with the New York Yankees as early as Monday, followed by the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

Carlos Baerga, a former Boras client, reportedly claims that the Mets offered Soto a $660 million contract, according to reporter Héctor Gómez.

But reports about Soto’s future should be taken with a grain of salt. They’re likely to contain bits and pieces of information fed to journalists by Soto’s agent Boras to incite a bidding war for his client.

Boras has successfully deployed strategic leaks over his 44-year career. But will they work this time around with the Soto talks?

The Scott Boras Game

Boras is a master narrative shaper. He was already working at it when Soto and the Yankees faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, telling journalists that Soto was “the Mona Lisa of the museum.”

Boras also appeared to try to bring Soto’s former club, the San Diego Padres, back into the scramble for the right fielder. During the World Series, he told USA Today that if Padres owner Peter Seidler “were still alive, none of this would be happening.” Soto, he said, “would have been with the Padres” and “never would have been traded to the Yankees.”

Now, it’s pretty bold — and, arguably, distasteful — for an agent to say that his client would have never been with his current team while they’re playing on baseball’s biggest stage.

But it’s not the first time Boras has played his Machiavellian games during the World Series.

In 2007, during Game 4 of the World Series, Boras announced his then-client Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his $252 million-10-year contract with the Yankees with three years remaining. In the offseason, Rodriguez ended up re-signing with the Yankees for a record $275 million, 10-year deal. But three years later, he parted ways with Boras.

Alongside media leaks, Boras’s tactics include protracted contract negotiations extending close to Opening Day. But there are signs that the 71-year-old’s ways may be aging.

In the previous offseason, four Boras clients — Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery, and Matt Chapman — ended up getting contracts that fell short of market expectations.

Boras was fired by Montgomery, who claimed that the agent “kind of butchered” a potential deal with the Boston Red Sox. Though his lights-out pitching helped propel the Texas Rangers to their 2023 World Series win, Montgomery ended up signing a one-year, $25-million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks just days before the start of the 2024 season. Instead of sitting comfortably at home on a multi-year deal, the 31-year-old Montgomery is in the open market this offseason after finishing a poor 2024 season with a 6.23 ERA.

Soto Is a Generational Talent With Some Gaping Holes in His Game

One thing is clear: Juan Soto will get his payday. The 26-year-old is a generational talent entering his prime playing years.

In 2024, Soto hit .288 this year, popped 41 home runs, and drove in 109 runs. He actually hit above .300 for most of the season before dropping off in late August. Like Aaron Judge, Soto exhibited great plate discipline, coming in second after the Yankees captain with 129 walks.

On the year, Soto was also sixth in the majors with a 7.9 WAR and second with a .419 on-base percentage.

Few can forget Juan Soto’s three-run homer in Game 5 of the ALCS, where he battled Hunter Gaddis, fouled off four off-speed pitches, and launched a 95-mph fastball into the seats.

While Judge has been a no-show in the playoffs, Soto has delivered clutch performances since his teenage years.

But the right fielder has some deficiencies in his game. He’s often a liability in the outfield and on the bases.

In Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, Soto misplayed a Kiké Hernández hit, turning what would have been a double into a triple, paving the way for a Dodgers sac-fly run.

This offseason, Soto may make another costly error: letting Boras overplay his hand.