The New York Yankees invested important resources to trade for All-Star outfielder Juan Soto late last year. They sent a top 100 prospect (Drew Thorpe), a quality young starter (Michael King), a backup catcher (Kyle Higashioka), and two solid organizational arms (Jhony Brito and Randy Vazquez) to the San Diego Padres to get their man. That’s more than 10 seasons of solid, cheap performance for one year of Soto.
But Soto, who has a beautiful .421 career OPS and 160 home runs at 25 years old, will be a free agent after the end of the 2024 World Series. The Yankees know that they have a shot at re-signing him on the open market, but an extension is highly unlikely, mainly because the player and his agent are virtually opposed to the idea.
In the open market, there are a few dangerous teams who might be real players for Soto. One of them is clearly the New York Mets.
Having the wealthiest owner in baseball in Steve Cohen hasn’t resulted in the Mets getting all the talent like many predicted: the Los Angeles Dodgers have been closer to earning that tag, at least this offseason. However, when Cohen wants someone and the organization really works as a well-oiled machine in the pursuit of that player, their chances are really high.
Mets and Yankees insider Andy Martino wrote that there is no reason why the Mets can’t pursue Soto.
“The view from here is there really isn’t any reason why the Mets wouldn’t make a massive push for Soto in free agency after this season,” SNY tweeted.
In the article, Martino explains that the first real free-agent battle of the two New York teams, the one for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, didn’t really yield the expected results because he ended up going to LA.
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The Yankees and Mets battling it out for Soto would be a dream scenario for the player
Still, the two organizations battling for Soto would be massive for the city and ideal for the player.
“I bet he goes for both,” a league executive who knows Cohen, told Martino, and the other one would be their own pending free agent Pete Alonso.
Truth be told, if the Mets are really serious about going for both stars, they would be favorites for Alonso and would have at least a fighting chance to get Soto.
The Yankees have a year to convince the perennial MVP candidate that the Bronx is his place in the world for the long term. They need to keep an open mind about what it would take for him to sign and a willingness to absorb an important financial commitment.