The New York Yankees find themselves in another tough free agency case just two years after Aaron Judge was on the market. While Judge has an argument to be the best player in Major League Baseball, Juan Soto’s free agency is expected to be much bigger than the Yankees MVP was.
A handful of teams could sign Soto, with the Yankees right in the mix. Among the other teams include the New York Mets, who Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report predicted the left-handed slugger would sign with in free agency.
“Juan Soto’s venture into free agency should be ridiculous. The AL MVP finalist only recently turned 26 and has already posted some of the best offensive numbers of this generation,” Buckley wrote on November 12. “With a power bat built to play anywhere and enough contact skills to have a batting title in his back pocket, his earnings potential is off the charts… Heyman cited Toronto’s “well-heeled ownership and strong incentive to improve” as reasons industry sources believe the club is a legitimate threat to land Soto…
“The idea of dropping Soto into a lineup already featuring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette is admittedly a fun one, but it’s still hard to imagine the slugger signing outside of the Big Apple. This has long felt like a battle between the Yankees and Mets, and that still seems the likeliest way for this situation to play out. Prediction: Soto signs with the Mets.”
Soto Looking to Break Shohei Ohtani’s Deal
Soto has an opportunity to become the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball history. Even if he doesn’t break the full $700 million that Shohei Ohtani was paid, the heavy deferrals in his contract could help Soto land the highest AAV deal ever.
He’d have to get more than $47 million in present-day value, which seems possible with the figures that have been thrown out there. The New York Mets and New York Yankees are two teams who could realistically offer him that.
David Schoenfield of ESPN compared the two, writing that Soto might be the safest free agent in recent memory, a good indication of the price the Yankees will have to pay.
“Some years, it’s not clear who might get the highest contract — say, Bryce Harper or Manny Machado in the 2018-19 offseason or Carlos Correa or Corey Seager in 2021-22. As with Ohtani last season, however, Soto won’t have any competition for that honor and the goal for him and agent Scott Boras will be to top Ohtani’s record-breaking deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, which MLB valued at $460.8 million in present-day dollars (since so much of the $700 million deal was deferred).
“Like Harper and Machado, Soto is a young free agent, entering his age-26 season,” Schoenfield wrote on November 14. “Given his elite hitting skills, that makes him about as safe as any superstar free agent in recent history — perhaps even more so than Ohtani (excluding Ohtani’s unparalleled marketing value).”
Why the Yankees Need Soto Back
After losing in the World Series, the New York Yankees were a few errors away from potentially winning it all in Soto’s first season with the team. If it weren’t for a walk-off home run in Game 1 and multiple errors in Game 5, there was a chance the Yankees would’ve been up 3-2 in the series.
While the if game doesn’t always work, it shows the Yankees weren’t too far away. If their goal is to win a World Series, losing Soto doesn’t help them get any closer to that.
Losing him to the New York Mets would be even worse, as that’d give the Mets a chance to win a World Series and be the champions of New York, which Yankees fans never want.
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