The writing has been on the wall for some time that the New York Yankees are going to have to stave off the crosstown-rival Mets for Juan Soto’s signature this winter when the superstar right fielder hits free agency.
Those sentiments only appear to be strengthening as the Major League Baseball season hits its 2024 stretch run — ESPN’s Jeff Passan being the latest to suggest that it will be an all-New-York battle for the 25-year-old.
“At the end of the day, high-ranking front office and ownership-level sources believe the winter for Soto is going to play out like this: Yankees vs. Mets. Behemoth vs. behemoth,” he wrote. “The most enthralling free agency battle imaginable.”
Soto is playing himself into a historic deal. In his first season with the Yankees after being acquired from the San Diego Padres in the winter, he already has a career-high 37 home runs and full-season (non-COVID-year) bests of a .600 slugging percentage and 1.027 OPS.
With it, he has created one of the most feared duos the game of baseball has ever seen alongside Aaron Judge, who is in pursuit of breaking his own single-season American League home run record of 62 set two years ago.
But Soto, who turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract with the Washington Nationals in 2022, is going to make at least $500 million on his next deal — and that is the bare minimum.
That is where things grow uncertain when it comes to the Yankees’ willingness to retain him. At this point, it would border on the lines of lunacy to let him walk with the Yankees seemingly on the precipice of a legitimate World Series push for the first time in 15 years.
But owner Hal Steinbrenner introduced some unease from the Bronx back in May when he said the roster at its current $308.9 million payroll is “simply not sustainable for us financially.”
Introducing the largest of mega-deals like Soto’s to join the likes of Gerrit Cole’s $324 million deal and Aaron Judge’s $360 million certainly does not play into those comments.
Granted, outside pressure should get the best of him and coax him toward throwing a blank check at Soto, which the All-Star rightfully deserves at this point.
How high he is willing to go, though, remains unseen — and it is a number that could be driven even higher by the bottomless pockets of Mets owner Steve Cohen should he decide to go all-in on Soto.
It certainly appears to be on the minds of some of the most prominent Mets, as well.
“When it comes to the outfielder from across our borough, he’s having a fantastic year and I hope he goes out there and breaks every record out there when it comes to getting paid,” star shortstop Francisco Lindor told Passan. “If it’s with us, it’ll be fantastic. He’ll help us a lot.”
Cohen has become cognizant of his former ways, particularly last season when he blew past multiple luxury tax thresholds to incur a 110% tax on every dollar he spent in 2024. But an opportunity to get a transcendental superstar like Soto provides the ultimate exception to the Mets’ newest rule of ensuring long-term sustainability, especially because he would not have to part with his new-found bevy of future assets in the farm system.
