The Juan Soto sweepstakes have barely begun, but some industry executives around Major League Baseball are confident enough to pick the early favorites.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com spoke to one anonymous American League executive who predicted Soto, the 26-year-old outfielder who helped the Yankees reach the World Series for the first time in 15 years in 2024, will remain in the city of New York next season and beyond.
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“It’s the Yankees or the Mets,” the executive told Feinsand. “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 hit a career-high 41 home runs for the Yankees in 2024 and led the American League in runs scored with 128. In the World Series, Soto slashed .313/.522/.563 with a home run in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ five-game series win.
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Feinsand also reported that the Dodgers will meet with Soto after he already met with the Yankees, Mets, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in Southern California. Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, is based in Newport Beach.
Soto is widely expected to command the most lucrative contract of any free agent this offseason — if not ever — after driving in 109 runs and reaching base at a .419 clip in his first season in the Bronx.
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Jon Heyman of the New York Post asserted the idea that Soto’s next contract will set a record for a baseball player is “all but certain.”
Heyman also reported the Mets’ meeting with Soto — the third on the books — went “extremely well.” The Yankees were scheduled to meet with Soto on Monday.
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In Dec. 2023, the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to the most lucrative contract ever given a baseball player, at 10 years and $700 million. Their interest in Soto might not be as fervent as the Yankees, or the crosstown rival Mets, but they are reportedly interested enough to prepare a presentation.
Ohtani’s contract deferred all but $20 million in annual payouts until after the 2033 season, so its present-day value was calculated at $437,830,563 by the MLB Players’ Association. That might well be the number Boras asks Soto’s suitors to beat.
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