The advertising of Juan SotoEasily the most sought-after free agent on the market and one of the best to ever hit this market, he's serious business. You can make a case for the incumbent New York Yankees Are the favorites to bring him back to the Bronxbut Steve Cohen and the Crosstown Mets I will certainly have a say in such matters. Those too Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue JaysAnd Philadelphia Phillies They're known to be in the game, and matters like this usually leave us whispering about a mysterious team or two.
As he discussed the Soto Derby and the Yankees' prominent role in it, owner Hal Steinbrenner addressed the state of play Wednesday in the vague and uninformative terms common to the ownership class when it comes to money matters goes. For both Yankee supporters and those who want to see Soto land elsewhere, probably all they need in this uncertain moment can be found in Steinbrenner's words.
First, via The Athleticwe have what might be described as a measure of Steinbrenner's Yankee confidence:
“I have ears. I know what is expected of me.”
Steinbrenner is expected to use the Yankees' incumbency advantage and the sport's deepest coffers to bring back this generational hitter. Unless Soto signs a lower offer elsewhere – an unthinkable turn of events – failure will fall to Steinbrenner if he doesn't remain a Yankee for the next decade.
Next comes something that can be interpreted as a subtle lowering of the expectations he just touched on above:
If you're a Yankees fan, you probably want to see something beyond “honest” and “no idea” when it comes to post-Soto caucus ratings. If you choose the Mets or another Soto contender, take the opportunity to read “honest meeting” as suggesting entrenched positions that aren't particularly close to each other a little to heart. It's a Rorschach in that respect.
Now comes the reduction in stakes:
He's right that losing Soto would do major damage to the Yankees' hopes of winning both the belt and the title in the foreseeable future. He's probably wrong when he says the Yankees wouldn't feel a loss to the Mets more painfully. That would be like little brother falling right on big brother's jaw, and that's a little different than other failure scenarios.
We continue here primarily because of Soto's brilliance and value. This season for the Yankees, he slashed .288/.419/.569 with 41 home runs and more walks than strikeouts. For his career, he owns an OPS+ of 160 and a WAR of 36.4. He is also extremely long-lived and is still only 26 years old. All of these considerations and his considerable star power mean Soto could end up getting a deal worth $600 million or more.
We're also talking about this because any reading of the current tea leaves shows that the Yankees and Mets are the two leading candidates, and of course that has the energy of a civil rivalry in the background. If the Yankees lose Soto to the Queenslanders, it would be the biggest offseason defeat a team can endure, and nothing Steinbrenner can say – or not say – can change those stakes.