The New York Yankees will be fourth team to meet with Juan Soto this month in California.
Will they be the last?
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The Soto sweepstakes are heating up, as the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets have already sent their emissaries to California to meet with the free agent slugger.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Saturday that the Mets’ meeting with Soto — the third on the books — went “extremely well.”
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“The Mets remain viewed as one of the favorites for the services of the 26-year-old Soto, who helped the Yankees reach the World Series in his initial season in The Bronx in 2024 and is the top winter priority of both New York teams,” Heyman writes. “Word is the Mets presentation was a ‘big production’ and ‘very detailed.’ “
Now, the New York Yankees are poised to step out of the on-deck circle and take their best hacks.
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The Yankees will meet with Soto on Monday, Heyman reports. The exact location of Soto’s Southern California meetings has not been disclosed. Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, is based in Newport Beach.
Heyman previously reported the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers planned meetings with Soto as well, but no news has emerged since about when they will meet. One report emerged suggesting no meeting had been scheduled between the Giants and Soto as of Wednesday.
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Soto hit a career-high 41 home runs for the Yankees in 2024, helping lead the team to its first World Series appearance in 15 years. He is widely expected to command the most lucrative contract of any free agent this offseason — if not ever — after scoring an American League-leading 128 runs, driving in 109, and reaching base at a .419 clip in his first season in the Bronx.
Heyman said the idea that Soto’s next contract will set a record for a baseball player is “all but certain.”
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Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers signed in Dec. 2023 is the current record. However, Ohtani’s contract deferred all but $20 million in annual payouts until after the final season, so its present-day value was calculated at $437,830,563 by the MLB Players’ Association.
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