Congratulations to the Yankees on making the trade for Juan Soto. After years of relative belt-tightening under Hal Steinbrenner, this feels like a move his dad would make. At one point, my hope was that the Mets would step up and acquire Soto but it became obvious that wasn’t going to be in the cards. It will be nice to only have to face him a handful of time next season.
However, there are two quick thoughts in regards to Soto and the Mets that are floating around my head.
1. If the Yankees add Yoshinobu Yamamoto to their roster, will their 2024 payroll top what the Mets had this past season? Spotrac lists the Yankees with a $270.8 million payroll, with an estimate of $27 million for Soto. MLBTR has a higher estimate than that. Yamamoto will likely be in the $30-million range. That still leaves the Yankees short of the Mets’ 2023 payroll. But they’re not likely done adding players to the roster, either.
2. How funny would it be if after the Yankees depleted their pitching depth for Soto he leaves after one year and signs with the Mets? My guess is that the Yankees end up extending Soto and there’s probably less than a 5% chance he ends up in Queens. But no sense letting go so easy of a scenario where the Yankees get shafted.
Soto is a wonderful offensive player, and I’d love to see him in a Met uniform. Timing is everything, and it just made no sense for the Mets to pay the price that it took for a guy that could walk after a year. If YY comes down to Mets vs Yankees, and the Yankees prevail, I will wonder how much payback will motivate Cohen should Soto get to market.
I don’t even want to think about Yamamoto going to the Yankees. The Yankees also did a nice job in getting Verdugo from Boston. George would be proud of the Soto move. If they could just ditch Stanton, and get a decent replacement that is a quick way to upgrade your team. As Brian says, my bet is also on Soto signing an extension.
I am very happy, because Cohen wants to win. I am concerned about Stearns. What are the odds that he is successful again with a bullpen full of cast offs? I sure hope I am wrong.
Let’s go get Yamamoto and Lee and add in Montgomery to boot.
Let’s see what our George is going to do.
Soto turned down a $440m offer when he was in Washington. He is going to be expensive, you would think. Is it prudent to spend $45-50m a year on one player? Or is it better to spend $50m on two players ( say 28m and 22m). I don’t know what the answer is for that question.
The Mets couldn’t match up with the Padres because they couldn’t provide what the Padres needed, which was pitching. The Yankees provided the Padres a haul and it is an one year rental. I’m glad that the Mets weren’t able to do that.
The Yankees went 82-80 last year and even with Soto are likely to be the 4th best team in their division. If they add Yamamoto they maybe move up one notch but still miss the playoffs. If the Mets were only a player or three from making the playoffs and succeeding from there, then we could have overpaid in prospects for Soto. There is no way that the Yankees will not re-sign him but I don’t see it happening until later in the season after Soto shows them how great a player he can be and how they move up against the the rest of their division. There is no way we should be outbid for Yamamoto and Senga’s success should help in the recruitment. You know, if Marte is healthy again, and bats second, our lineup gets much stronger as well as our outfield D. Still not sure who will pitch but hopefully we add two established pitchers for the rotation who are not named Blake Snell, as most analysts point out that aside from two years winning the Cy Young award, his other six years were not good. Lots of work still to be done not to finish 4th again.
I think that Soto will reach free agency. The Yanks let Judge get that far and he signed for “only” $40 million/year. I can see Cohen giving Soto a $550 million/12-year deal that the Yanks won’t match.