The New York Yankees and New York Mets remain the top two teams in the Juan Soto sweepstakes. The Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers remain in the race as well.
Soto is expected to make a decision in the next few days with the bidding being anywhere between $600 million and $700 million at this point.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently predicted Soto would betray the Yankees and sign with the Mets on a 15 year, $622 million deal, which would be quite a bit less average annual value than some of the deals being predicted.
“I debated putting Soto with the Yankees here, but since I’ve done that in a previous free-agent matchmaking article, I went with the Mets this time around,” Bowden wrote. “I still believe the Mets will end up offering Soto the most money and the most years; what I don’t know is whether the Yankees will come close to matching them. With Soto going through the process of eliminating teams from the pool that’s bid on him and likely nearing a decision, the Mets remain a real possibility.”
It’s hard for me to imagine the Mets would land Soto for just $622 million at this point. If all the money was equal, Soto may lean for the Dodgers because the roster and talent that he would be joining would almost be guaranteed to win multiple World Series titles over the next decade.
So, if the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Red Sox are all within $20 million with their offers, it’s doubtful that he will go to the Mets. The Mets’ “trump card” in this sweepstakes is the money. For Soto to land with the Mets, it’s going to be because owner Steve Cohen won the bidding war by a wide margin.
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