How Yankees plan to woo Juan Soto, decision could come “quickly” | Klapisch

With the Juan Soto sweepstakes already under way, the Yankees are making final reparations for a face-to-face meeting with the slugger and super-agent Scott Boras.
The sit-down will take place on Monday in Newport Beach, California, with owner Hal Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone planning to drive home the Yankees’ sales pitch.
Of all the other teams Soto is believed to be seriously considering – Mets, Blue Jays, Red Sox and possibly the Dodgers – the Yankees have the closest, most recent relationship.
And there’s one other perk Steinbrenner and his braintrust will emphasize as well.
“It’s the idea of pairing up with (Aaron) Judge, and going to the playoffs practically every year,” is how one industry source put it.
The Yankees will remind Soto he went straight to the World Series in his first season in Pinstripes. And despite the traumatic loss to the Dodgers, Soto and Judge combined to become MLB’s most fearsome regular season duo.
Still, the Yankees aren’t naive enough to think Soto can be swayed by words alone. Although he got along well with teammates and was especially respectful of Judge, Soto is focusing on Steinbrenner’s checkbook.
The coming bidding war figures to be a doozy.
But unlike previous off-seasons, when Boras would drag out negotiations to squeeze the market for its last dollar, he’ll likely limit the tour to one round.
As another MLB executive said, “I expect there to be a decision fairly quickly” based on Boras’ failed strategies last year.
His top two clients, Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell, were held out until late March and paid a steep price.
Snell didn’t sign with the Giants until March 19 and posted a 9.51 ERA in the first half of the season.
Montgomery waited even longer hoping for a five-year pact. He instead settled for a one-year deal with Arizona on March 27. The left-hander fired Boras two weeks later.
Boras has other big-name clients waiting on the runway this time around, including Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman and Snell, who exercised the opt-out with San Francisco. None of them can begin shopping until Soto sets the market.
For that reason, observers believe Soto and Boras will choose a finalist by the first or second week of December.
That doesn’t leave the Yankees much time to gauge the competition. Steinbrenner will need to negotiate aggressively from the start.
He’s believed to be “all in” on Soto, according to one source. But that’s no guarantee the Yankees will be the highest bidder.
To the contrary, Steinbrenner has a realistic expectation that Mets’ owner Steve Cohen will offer Soto the biggest contract – both in dollars and length of commitment.
Cohen sat down with Soto and Boras on Saturday. According to the New York Post, the meeting went “extremely well” and may have established the Mets as the early front runners.
No doubt Cohen, who has a portfolio worth more than $14 billion, made it clear Soto will the richest player in MLB history as a Met. And the owner can also make a case for the franchise’s ascendant future.
The Mets’ strong finish last year included overpowering the Brewers and Phillies in the first two rounds of the playoffs, then taking the Dodgers to six games in the NLCS. All this as a wild-card entry.
The Mets can legitimately say they’re one player away from becoming a National League powerhouse.
It’s a compelling argument, which puts additional pressure on Steinbrenner to sell the Yankees’ strengths.
He may well concede the Mets took the NL by surprise in 2024, but their path to the World Series is nevertheless more challenging than the Bombers’.
The Dodgers, after all, are baseball’s most talented team. They figure to be a long-term obstacle to any National League rival, including the Mets.
The Yankees, on the other hand, were able to exploit a weak American League field last year. If Steinbrenner can add another starter, say, Corbin Burnes as a co-ace with Gerrit Cole, the Yankees would be favorites to repeat as AL pennant winners.
The question is whether Soto would buy the trade-off: fewer dollars from Steinbrenner in exchange for a better shot at a ring.
It’d be a no-brainer if the young Boss was making that same pitch to Judge, who grew up in the Yankees’ organization. But Soto has no deep-tissue loyalty to the franchise.
He wants to win; it’s important to his legacy. But Soto also wants that $700 million deal that Boras believes he can command.
The Yankees at least have that one-season head start on everyone else. The good will in the clubhouse went both ways. That’s not nothing.
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Bob Klapisch may be reached at [email protected].