December 4th, 2024: Obsessive Soto Watch

For the first time since we got word about meetings with specific teams, there was some actual Juan Soto free agency news Tuesday. Stuff that is important enough that I don’t want to wait until Friday’s post to talk about it. Here’s the latest:

• Soto has “begun the process of eliminating teams,” Scott Boras said at Blake Snell’s introductory press conference Tuesday (per J.P. Hoornstra). Boras added he did not think a deal was not imminent.

• Every team still in the race has offered at least $600M (the number of years is unknown), according to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich (subs. req’d). Brendan Kuty says the Yankees are among those teams.

• Soto’s free agency is “nearing its final stages” and a deal could be done by the end of this week, before next week’s Winter Meetings, per Alden Gonzalez.

"When you go through these things, you just have a lot of information to meld through," Boras said when asked about Soto at Snell’s press conference (per Gonzalez). "We've had meetings with a number of franchises. He's begun the process of eliminating teams and doing things. Juan is a very methodical thinker, so we'll see. I don't think anything is imminent in the near future."

We need not overthink this. Soto is one of the best players in the world and he just turned 26. When you’re the Yankees, and you’re this close to the World Series and your brand is built on stars and championships, you sign him. You already know how well Soto fits in the clubhouse and in your lineup. You saw his impact firsthand. It’s a huge contract, sure, but this is a very easy decision.

Ultimately, it will come down to Hal Steinbrenner’s willingness. I’ve said this before, but the Yankees have the money. They can beat any offer, even Steve Cohen’s. It’s just a question of whether Hal is willing to do it, because the days of the Yankees being baseball's top spender are over. The Yankees haven’t had baseball’s highest payroll in a 162-game season since 2013 (per Cot’s). That is a conscious decision. It is Hal’s design.

I will do it if I have to, but I am uninterested in exploring a Plan B. Plan B is trading prospects and forfeiting draft picks to add a bunch of 30-somethings so you can try to replace an irreplaceable player. Remember what this team was before Soto? I’m not sure how anyone could watch the 2021-24 Yankees and say you know what, this contract is too much for that guy. Soto’s a franchise changer. These players are extremely rare.

It sounds like we’re in “any day now” territory. The offers are over $600M (I assume they’ll eventually get over $700M) and Soto has begun eliminating teams. Once that happens, things can come together very quickly. My initial guess for signing day was next Wednesday, Dec. 11th. I’m going to revise that to this Friday. I think we’re days away from a resolution now, not a week.