Since the conclusion of the World Series last week, multiple reporters and analysts have predicted that All-Star outfielder Juan Soto will either re-sign with the New York Yankees, join the New York Mets or make a move to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency.
It seems executives attending the annual general manager meetings this week have narrowed the contenders to win Soto’s signature down to two clubs.
“It’s the Yankees or the Mets,” one American League executive said about Soto’s eventual destination while speaking with Mark Feinsand of the MLB website. “He knows the Yankees well after spending a year there, and (Mets owner) Steve Cohen has enough money to give him whatever he wants if he decides he wants him badly enough. It’s tough for me to see Soto winding up anywhere else.”
Soto reportedly prefers “to be on the East Coast” and, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, understands that Cohen is ready to battle it out with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner regarding the slugger’s services through at least the middle of December.
Soto thrived with the Yankees while sharing a lineup with to-be two-time AL Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge, but one unnamed executive wondered if the 26-year-old is simply looking for “the most money” on the market.
By all accounts, Cohen can afford to outbid Steinbrenner and still field what would be seen as a “sustainable winner.”
Feinsand added in his piece that “the wide-ranging belief within the industry is that Soto will wind up in New York when all is said and done” and that “the only question is whether he’ll be calling Queens or the Bronx home.”
Meanwhile, Jake Mintz of Yahoo Sports said on Tuesday that “the understanding around baseball is that the two Big Apple clubs are far and away the likeliest landing spots for Soto, with the Yankees still the front-runners” to win the sweepstakes.
“Soto going anywhere beyond New York would classify as an absolute bombshell,” Mintz continued.
The Mets falling to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series robbed New York baseball fans of a Subway Series. It’s now up to Cohen and Steinbrenner to produce the type of showdown that didn’t happen when Judge reached free agency in the fall of 2022.