The Juan Soto sweepstakes is the main story in baseball right now. Where will the New York Yankees superstar sign?
The sweepstakes reportedly are down to five teams: the Yankees, the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox. And each of these five teams has reportedly issued Soto an offer of more than $600 million.
The expectation, to this point, was that Soto would sign during the offseason’s winter meetings next week. But ESPN’s Jeff Passan has given a much clearer timeline for when the Soto sweepstakes should wrap up and it’s sooner than you may think.
“The expectation is that there will be meetings over the weekend,” Passan said on Wednesday evening. “It’s at that point Soto will decide where he’s going to go. And we will know at the latest by the time the Winter Meetings in Dallas start.”
To clarify, Passan is indicating that Soto will reveal where he plans to sign by the start of the winter meetings, which begin Monday. Passan also indicated Soto could receive a deal at or above $700 million if there’s a team willing to venture into a 15-year contract.
The end of the Soto sweepstakes won’t signal the end of this winter’s free agency intrigue, however. When Soto signs, he’s going to be the first domino to fall. In the falling days and weeks, the four teams that missed on Soto will be aggressively pursuing their backup plans. We could see a majority of the top 20 free agents come off the board within the week after Soto agrees to a deal.
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