Let the bidding warfare start.
After seven big-league seasons, 4 All-Star picks, two blockbuster trades, two World Sequence appearances and a batting title, Juan Soto is a free agent. His resolution will dominate headlines within the coming months, as followers and executives debate the celebrity’s current and future worth.
Although the Soto sweepstakes has been billed as a two-horse race between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, most possession teams will a minimum of have a dialog about forking over a $600 million provide to Soto and his agent, Scott Boras. That’s as a result of Soto matches any workforce’s timeline, from the World Sequence champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the 121-loss Chicago White Sox: He’s solely 26. Soto may signal a 14-year deal and never flip 40 till the week he returned to free company in 2038.
Beneath, in alphabetical order, is an examination of how Soto would match 9 of the groups anticipated to pursue him. How would Soto’s bat reshape the lineup in 2024? And the way does he remodel every workforce’s core?
Nothing would return Yankees-Purple Sox to its rightful place as baseball’s undisputed finest rivalry like Soto spurning New York to signal with Boston. And nothing would restore Purple Sox followers’ waning religion in John Henry and Fenway Possession Group like paying $600-plus million to poach Soto from the Yankees.
Soto’s all-fields strategy would play superbly at Fenway Park — the second-best ballpark within the majors for left-handed hitters, per Statcast — although his addition to the lineup would make the Purple Sox’s lack of right-handed hitting much more obvious. Boston’s core of batters alongside Soto would come with lefties Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, Triston Casas, and Wilyer Abreu and right-handed bat Trevor Story, all beneath membership management by a minimum of 2027, plus a number of prime prospects at the moment nearing the majors. Soto’s lack of defensive vary can be mitigated by parking him in Fenway’s small left discipline, and there’s no hulking slugger stopping him from shifting ultimately to DH. Soto makes a whole lot of sense for the Purple Sox. However additionally they produce other clear wants, and there’s a cause executives describe them as a second-tier choice to signal Soto: Possession has proven no want to throw round that form of cash in free company. — Stephen J. Nesbitt
The Cubs have by no means signed a free agent to a contract price greater than $184 million (Jason Heyward), or carrying a mean annual worth of greater than $30 million (Cody Bellinger), so this can be a stretch. However free-agent hitters this good, or this younger, don’t come round typically.
Bellinger opting into his contract for 2025 has sophisticated the Soto equation on two fronts. First, the Cubs is likely to be much more keen to bid on Soto’s companies in the event that they weren’t paying $27.5 million to Bellinger this 12 months (and probably $25 million subsequent 12 months). Second, they’d have to maneuver Bellinger, Ian Happ or Seiya Suzuki to open a corner-outfield or DH spot for Soto. Within the brief time period, seeing Soto in Cubbie blue requires some creativeness. However Soto just isn’t a short-term acquisition. With few prolonged contracts on the books and a number of other impression prospects at Triple A, by signing Soto the Cubs can be delivering a powerful assertion to the remainder of the baseball world that they’re keen to spend massive of their try and personal the NL Central. — Nesbitt
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers lastly captured their elusive full-season World Sequence crown, and now they’ve an opportunity to cement themselves as a real drive to be reckoned with in an age when mediocrity permeates a lot of the league. Los Angeles opened the season with MLB’s third-highest payroll, however including Soto should still be possible, particularly contemplating the $68 million annual deferral in Shohei Ohtani’s megadeal. Two outfield spots are opening, as Teoscar Hernández hits free company and Mookie Betts strikes again to the infield, and the dream of a lineup that includes Ohtani, Betts, Soto and Freddie Freeman is the stuff dynasties are fabricated from.
Betts is signed by 2032, Ohtani and catcher Will Smith are signed by 2033 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is signed by 2035. Including Soto to a corporation hailed for its player-development pipeline would give the Dodgers a startling quantity of expertise and will guarantee one other decade of dominance. — Cody Stavenhagen
New York Mets
Steve Cohen might be going exhausting for Soto. (Brad Penner / USA Right this moment)
Lower than two years in the past, because the Mets went on a free-agent spending spree, Boras stated, “You possibly can envision Steve Cohen hanging on to the Empire State Constructing. It’s perhaps not Steve Cohen. It’s perhaps Steve Kong.” If ever there was a second for the Mets proprietor to flex his monetary may, it’s this one. Coming off a shock NLCS run, the Mets have empty spots on their roster and an proprietor keen (and wealthy sufficient) to fill them with the very best gamers accessible. Beginning with Soto, whom Cohen is visiting this week.
The present product ain’t shabby, in fact. Francisco Lindor was an MVP candidate in 2024 and is signed by 2031. Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Alvarez are all a part of the long-term core, with top-100 prospects Jett Williams and Drew Gilbert poised to hitch quickly. Soto may man proper discipline or DH for the Mets. There’s no query he’d match properly in Queens. There’s additionally no query that if Cohen decides to win a bidding warfare, no different proprietor can beat him. — Nesbitt
New York Yankees
The Yankees don’t spend with bottomless pockets like they as soon as did, however we now have already seen how a dynamic duo of Soto and Aaron Choose can convey supremacy again to the Bronx. Soto thrived beneath the New York lights, reveled in a park pleasant to home-run hitters and even had shiny spots on protection in Yankee Stadium’s small proper discipline. As an all-fields hitter, Soto didn’t profit from the right-field brief porch to the extent one may anticipate, however the ballpark nonetheless fits him, and Soto appeared to like his 12 months in pinstripes. “That is going to remain in my coronary heart for the remainder of my life, this group of men,” Soto stated after the World Sequence. “This 12 months was actually particular for me.”
Scott Boras stated that he expects that Juan Soto will meet with Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ braintrust, sooner or later this offseason — the identical approach he’ll with different groups which have curiosity.
Hal/Soto met over the summer time, too.
— Brendan Kuty 🧟♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) November 6, 2024
If the Yankees are severe about ending their World Sequence drought, re-signing Soto is the apparent place to begin. To finest perceive why he makes a lot sense, merely think about the 2024 Yankees with out him. — Stavenhagen
The Phillies fell brief within the playoffs, however there’s nonetheless an argument that they had the closest factor to a whole workforce in baseball. The feedback from the membership’s prime personalities within the days since have been sufficient to boost eyebrows. Proprietor John Middleton informed The Athletic he’s content material remaining a luxury-tax workforce for years to return. Middleton informed USA Right this moment he would even be keen to exceed the third luxury-tax threshold of $281 million “for the best participant.” Dave Dombrowski stated bolstering the outfield is the Phillies’ most evident path to enchancment.
There is no such thing as a participant extra “proper” than Soto, who may convey one other huge bat to a robust Phillies order. Signing Soto, although, would require some stage of creativity. Philadelphia already has defensively challenged gamers in Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber and no DH at-bats to spare. However Soto has ties to Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and hitting coach Kevin Lengthy. The problems right here make the Phillies look like an extended shot, however wheeling and dealing in pursuit of a star participant has lengthy been Dave Dombrowski’s specialty. — Stavenhagen
The Giants’ free-agent monitor file beneath Farhan Zaidi was marked by an lack of ability — or unwillingness — to land a face-of-the-franchise celebrity. Bryce Harper. Aaron Choose. Carlos Correa. Shohei Ohtani. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That is Buster Posey’s probability to place that narrative to relaxation. (Until he isn’t given the liberty to spend massive this offseason.) After extending Matt Chapman, who like Blake Snell had signed a glorified one-year cope with the Giants final offseason, Posey is definitely intrigued by the thought of bringing the Bay Space its finest hitter since Barry Bonds.
In 22 video games in San Francisco, Soto has batted .325 with seven homers and a 1.050 OPS, a small pattern that also will make some Giants followers salivate. He’d slot right into a nook outfield spot beside heart fielder Jung Hoo Lee, or at DH, and occupy the center of the Giants’ lineup alongside Chapman for the rest of the 2020s. The Giants haven’t had a 30-homer hitter since Bonds in 2004. Soto has three such seasons, together with the previous two. San Francisco is a tricky place to hit, however his bat performs anyplace. — Nesbitt
The Blue Jays have up to now refused to concede their aggressive window is closing. Whilst Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette enter contract seasons having by no means superior previous the Wild Card Sequence, Toronto appears targeted on profitable. After a failed pursuit of Ohtani final winter, maybe nothing would put the Blue Jays again within the thick of the AL East race than plucking Soto from the rival Yankees.
Statcast tasks Soto would have hit extra residence runs in Rogers Centre than he did in Yankee Stadium final season. The membership may badly use a lefty thumper to enrich what has lengthy been a heavy right-handed order. Their flirtations with Ohtani final offseason confirmed a willingness to spend, although membership president Mark Shapiro stated final month he didn’t anticipate payroll “rising or reducing in an enormous approach” in 2025. This coming 12 months can be essential if the Blue Jays need to keep away from crumpling up their present building and beginning over. May desperation grow to be the mom of a daring transfer? — Stavenhagen
Juan Soto was a very good match for a Nationals uniform as soon as. May it occur once more? (Orlando Ramirez / USA Right this moment)
How about ending with a storybook homecoming?
The way in which issues ended between Soto and the Nationals, with him turning down a 15-year, $440 million extension earlier than being traded to San Diego, a reunion would appear extremely unlikely. However the Nationals are on the upswing, because the prospects added all through their rebuild are reaching the majors and maturing. Maybe Soto might be swayed to rejoin the membership he helped result in a World Sequence title in 2019 — additionally the membership that employs his youthful brother, 18-year-old Elian Soto.
Of the six gamers Washington acquired within the Soto commerce, three are on their main league roster — CJ Abrams, James Wooden and MacKenzie Gore — and Robert Hassell III is sort of there. By re-acquiring Soto, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo would speed up the workforce’s timeline to competition in a troublesome NL East, placing collectively an incomplete but compelling lineup that includes Soto, Abrams, Wooden, Dylan Crews, Luis García Jr. and Keibert Ruiz. That group wouldn’t rival the Phillies, Mets or Braves in Yr 1 of the Soto contract, however that contract — and Soto’s prime — will proceed on loooong after 2025. — Nesbitt
(Prime picture: AP Photograph / Seth Wenig)
