The Mets’ Juan Soto pursuit took its next step, with a contingent including the manager, PoBO and owner meeting with Soto and agent Scott Boras. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the meeting took place “at an undisclosed location somewhere near Newport Beach, Calif., in a very clandestine manner.” Two things to keep in mind here. First, Heyman is a known mouthpiece for Boras, which explains why he got this story in the first place. Second, Newport Beach is where the Boras Company headquarters is located. It doesn’t make any difference if the meeting took place at the office or some other Boras-owned property – or rental – in the area. It’s just that’s the reason these meetings are taking place on the West Coast, rather than, say, the Dominican Republic.
No one doubts that the Mets will step up and make a strong offer. This is their top priority and it won’t be a repeat of the Craig Counsell negotiations, where the Mets ended up with the lowest bid, as they assumed Counsell and his agents were using them to drive up the price. Soto and Boras don’t really need the Mets in that same capacity. Soto’s going to get a monster deal whether the Mets are involved or not. Obviously, they prefer the Mets to be players. But it’s not a requirement.
Of course, there’s the fear that the Mets will make an offer, the Yankees will match and Soto remains in the Bronx. We saw this type of scenario play out last year, in the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes. But Yamamoto was leaving Japan for the first time, with L.A. being closer to home, while Soto left the Dominican in 2016. Also, the Mets were coming off a 75-win season when Yamamoto was picking his next team. In the Soto pursuit, they’re coming off an 89-win season – where they swept the Yankees – that resulted in a trip to the NLCS.
If the Mets could post an 89-win season in a year where they highlighted flexibility over all else in their offseason moves, what could they do if they took the self-imposed shackles off?
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