New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner made one thing clear regarding his team’s chances of retaining Juan Soto in free agency: He has “no idea” how it will play out.
It was a phrase uttered multiple times by the head of the Bronx Bombers on Wednesday at the owners’ meetings, though he eased some of the tensions surrounding the notion that he would be frugal this winter in hopes of improving his team’s payroll.
“We’re in a better starting position than we were a year ago,” Steinbrenner said. “There’s no doubt about that. Year after year… payroll is similar to this year and the luxury taxes, like others, are not sustainable and not feasible. That’s the case for the vast majority of owners and maybe all the owners year after year. It doesn’t mean that I can’t do what I want to do. We’ve got the ability to sign any player that we would like to sign.”
That certainly bodes well for the Yankees, who are expected to lock into an all-out battle with the crosstown rival Mets for Soto’s signature. Initial expectations forecasted that the Mets and their owner Steve Cohen, valued at $16 billion, would be able to blow any Yankees offer out of the water.
That still might be the case, but Steinbrenner’s comments at least suggest that there will be no penny-pinching. Granted, he does not have much of a choice when it comes to a player of Soto’s caliber.
The 26-year-old lefty is one of the elite offensive producers in the game and is on the cusp of a $600 million-plus contract that will provide him a home for what is expected to be the rest of his career.
After hitting 41 home runs with the Yankees in 2024 — his first year with the team after being acquired from the San Diego Padres — the pressure from fans and players alike grew.
Following Game 4 of the ALCS, in which Soto’s home run clinched a 41st American League pennant, Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm told YES Network that Steinbrenner should pay $700 million for the right fielder.
The shouts for Soto to stay in the Bronx were so prominent that Soto admitted just moments after the Yankees’ season ended following Game 5 of the World Series that the support “probably impacts the decision of ownership” when considering the ferocity of their pursuit of his services.
“I’ve got ears,” Steinbrenner said on Wednesday. “I know what’s expected of me.”
But the competition for Soto’s signature will be fierce, hence why Steinbrenner continuously said “I don’t know” when asked how he will see things play out. The presence of Cohen and the Mets will certainly play a role in all of this, and seeing him potentially move across town would be one of the larger whiffs in franchise history.
Granted, seeing Soto in Queens would allegedly not hurt Steinbrenner any more than him signing anywhere else.
“No. As I said, we’re going to be in the mix for Soto,” he said (h/t Tim Healey, Newsday). “If it doesn’t work out, it’s going to hurt a little bit no matter where he goes.”
