{"id":31007,"date":"2025-02-03T00:34:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T00:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=31007"},"modified":"2025-02-03T00:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T00:34:22","slug":"mets-news-new-york-mets-president-reveals-surprise-details-on-how-far-back-plot-to-steal-juan-soto-away-from-new-york-yankees-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=31007","title":{"rendered":"METS NEWS: New York Mets president reveals surprise details on how far back plot to steal Juan Soto away from New York Yankees began"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a new interview, New York Mets President David Stearns revealed plans to sign superstar outfielder Juan Soto began well before fans realized.<\/p>\n<p>This has been a good offside for the Mets. They entered the offseason with hopes of filling holes and improving a roster that surprised MLB by reaching the NLCS in October. And a case can be made that they are better now than they were at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>While they have made several signings over the last few months, there is one specific reason for the increased expectations in 2025: Juan Soto. The 26-year-old was the top free agent in this year\u2019s class and one of the biggest of this century. It is not common for an elite player to hit the open market as they are just entering their prime.<\/p>\n<p>All of the league\u2019s wealthiest teams were involved in the bidding for the four-time All-Star. But the Mets made an offer \u2014 $765 million \u2014 and a pitch Soto could not refuse. While there had been rumblings for months the team would be suitors for the former Yankees star, it seems early plans to target the youngster this offseason began over a year ago.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Juan Soto stats (2024):<\/strong> .288 AVG, .419 OBP, .569 SLG, .989 OPS, 41 HR, 109 RBI, 128 R<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"h-new-york-mets-had-juan-soto-in-crosshairs-over-a-year-ago\">New York Mets had Juan Soto in crosshairs over a year ago<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MLB-New-York-Mets-Press-Conference-24970629-788x525.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=525,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MLB-New-York-Mets-Press-Conference-24970629.jpg 788w, https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=285,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MLB-New-York-Mets-Press-Conference-24970629.jpg 428w, https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=196,height=131,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MLB-New-York-Mets-Press-Conference-24970629.jpg 196w, https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=465,height=310,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MLB-New-York-Mets-Press-Conference-24970629.jpg 465w\" alt=\"New York Mets president reveals surprise details on how far back plot to steal Juan Soto away from New York Yankees began\" width=\"788\" height=\"525\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSoto was among a host of players that Steve and I discussed during the period where we were discussing me taking on this position,\u201d Stearns told CNBC recently. \u201cAnd so I think I understood Steve\u2019s perspective, and he very much understood my perspective as I was coming into this position on our pursuit of elite free agents. And there aren\u2019t a lot of them out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere aren\u2019t a whole lot of opportunities to be able to acquire a generational type player, a potential future Hall of Famer on the available market, usually you\u2019re trading young players,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd in this case, Juan was a free agent at a very early stage in his career, and that\u2019s why he attracted so much attention.<\/p>\n<p>Cohen started talking with David Stearns in September of 2023 and eventually hired him to take over the franchise as president early in October. So the two were eyeing Juan Soto over a year before he even hit the open market. As well as a few months before he became a Yankee.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Juan Soto contract:<\/strong> 15 years, $765 million<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"h-mets-president-adds-more-insight-to-club-s-strategy-to-lure-soto-away-from-the-yankees\">Mets president adds more insight to club\u2019s strategy to lure Soto away from the Yankees<\/h2>\n<p>Stearns also offered more insight on strategizing how they would be able to persuade the talented outfielder to leave their crosstown rivals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll you can really do is do your internal work to determine that you have the best understanding possible as to who this player is on the field and who he is off the field,\u201d said Stearns. \u201cSo that we can set our own internal valuations, understand how far we\u2019re willing to go, what makes sense for our franchise, the impact he can have on the field, off the field for us, but also understand what might appeal to the player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA big part of this process with a premium free agent is the non-monetary aspects of the deal, the recruitment, him understanding who we are as an organization, then ultimately his determination as to whether we\u2019re the right fit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Mets president reveals surprising details on how far back early plans to lure Juan Soto to Queens began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - 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