It feels like All-Star outfielder Juan Soto will not dedicate his long-term future to the New York Yankees anytime quickly after he joined them from the San Diego Padres by way of a commerce introduced late Wednesday evening.
“Individuals have questioned would he signal an extension with the Yankees someday this winter,” ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney stated about Soto in the course of the newest version of the “Baseball Is not Boring” podcast, as shared by Ryan Gilbert of Audacy. “I feel there’s little-to-no likelihood of that. I feel he’s seeking to have a launch yr and develop into subsequent winter’s Shohei Ohtani.”
Whereas SNY’s Andy Martino reported earlier within the week that Yankees proprietor Hal Steinbrenner is keen to boost the membership’s payroll “to greater than $300M for the primary time” to pay the likes of Soto and Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto when big-money gamers akin to Aaron Choose are already on the books, Yankees senior vice chairman and common supervisor Brian Cashman revealed on Thursday he hadn’t “had any conversations relating to” an extension with Soto.
Soto is ready to develop into a free agent after the 2024 season and certain will ink a deal bigger than the nine-year, $360M contract Choose signed final December. As for Ohtani, the two-way famous person may be near placing pen to paper on an settlement value round $600M that might or might not come from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Steinbrenner retained each Cashman and supervisor Aaron Boone after the Yankees missed the playoffs for the primary time since 2016, however Boone solely has a yr left on his contract that features a membership choice for 2025. Olney advised that Boone and/or Cashman probably being on the new seat is one purpose why the Yankees “needed to” commerce for Soto even when the 25-year-old technically is a one-year rental as of the second full weekend of December.
“I feel the Yankees are underneath lots of strain after a disastrous yr,” Olney defined. “They’re pushing all of the chips in the course of the desk for 2024 which is Aaron Boone’s final yr underneath contract as supervisor of the Yankees.”
