Reports from this past weekend indicated that interested clubs hadn’t yet handed financial offers to free agent Juan Soto.
It turns out that wasn’t accurate.
On Monday night, Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com revealed that the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays “presented contract offers to agent Scott Boras late last week.”
MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi later confirmed Miller’s update.
As recently as Monday, MLB insider Bob Nightengale of USA Today shared that executives view the Mets as “the clear-cut favorite” to win the Soto sweepstakes. Nightengale also suggested that the Dodgers are not “seriously in play for Soto” coming off their World Series championship.
According to Miller, Soto “is believed to be seeking a 15-year deal worth more than $700M.” To compare, the contract Shohei Ohtani received from the Dodgers last offseason is worth $700M over 10 years but includes $680M in deferred money.
Miller added that Soto seemingly “isn’t interested in deferred money.”
While Mets owner Steve Cohen is reportedly “willing to go $50M over whatever anybody offers” to sign Soto, Nightengale said that Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has “a price in mind” he doesn’t “want to exceed” regarding the All-Star outfielder.
“We’re going to find out,” Cohen said at a Monday event about Soto’s uncertain future, per John Flanigan of SNY. “It’s either going to be yes or no. There’s no in-between, time will tell.”
Cohen noted that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns “built a great team last year” via what many felt at the time was an uninspiring offseason for the organization. After the Mets completed a trip to this year’s National League Championship Series, many fans are demanding that Cohen make Soto the highest financial offer.
It remains to be seen if Soto will give the Yankees or any other club even a small discount in negotiations. Per reports, the 26-year-old wants to reset the market and play for a contender that features “ownership that’s going to support that they are going to win annually.”
Unless a so-called mystery team swoops in, it sounds like the Soto saga could reach a conclusion as soon as next week.
