Juan Soto would be the high free agent within the upcoming class and is trending in the direction of the most important contract in MLB historical past — assuming one counts the Shohei Ohtani deal based mostly on its approximate $461M internet current worth.
There has by no means been a lot doubt that the 25-year-old famous person would take a look at the market, even after Yankees proprietor Hal Steinbrenner left open the chance of discussing a midseason extension final month.
Soto implied as a lot Tuesday night in a dialog with Jon Heyman of the New York Submit.
Requested by Heyman whether or not he anticipated the Mets to be concerned within the bidding, Soto replied, “We’ll see. Within the offseason we’ll determine it out. I’ll let [agent Scott Boras] do his factor. We’re going to see.”
The three-time All-Star adopted up by talking glowingly of his time with the Yankees.
Steinbrenner’s feedback apart, the Yankees presumably haven’t been all that optimistic about holding Soto off the market. GM Brian Cashman mentioned in February that the workforce totally anticipated Soto would take a look at free company through Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. The Yankees will definitely make a big effort to maintain him within the Bronx subsequent winter.
Soto famously declined a 14-year, $440M extension provide from the Nationals earlier than Washington traded him in 2022. The Padres equally expressed a want to work out a long-term association within the early portion of final offseason. That clearly didn’t materialize and he was traded once more.
There aren’t any publicly reported specifics on contract phrases that both San Diego or the Yankees have floated. Heyman mentioned final month that Soto had declined seven extension provides inside the final 5 years. That has lengthy made it appear to be a foregone conclusion that he and his camp would take issues to free company.
He might nicely achieve this coming off one of the best season of his profession. Soto hit his nineteenth house run of the season tonight and is on tempo to high final 12 months’s personal-high 35 longballs. He carried a .305/.431/.563 slash line into Tuesday’s sport.
That’d be the very best slugging proportion he’s posted in a 162-game schedule. It’d be the second-best on-base mark he has managed in a full season.
