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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterNov 20, 2024, 02:21 PM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner confirmed that club officials recently met with free agent slugger Juan Soto in California, describing it as a “good meeting” that included “very honest back-and-forth dialogue” without divulging many other details.
“Our fans really enjoyed having him in New York,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday in the lobby of MLB’s offices where the owners meetings are being held this week. “He’s definitely a significant part of why we got to the World Series. I’ve got ears. I know what’s expected of me. So, look, it’s been a priority. We wouldn’t have gone out to the West Coast if it wasn’t.”
Steinbrenner said the Yankees’ delegation included general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, president Randy Levine, and Omar Minaya, a special assistant to the general manager. The owner declined to share the team’s pitch to Soto or if any offers were made over the couple of hours, but he said he told Soto he would establish a relationship with the star outfielder similar to the one he has with franchise cornerstones Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge if Soto chooses to re-sign. Steinbrenner noted Soto asked about the organization’s player development system.
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“No idea,” Steinbrenner said when asked if he was confident the team would re-sign Soto. “We’ll be in the mix. I’ll leave it at that.”
In addition to the Yankees, Soto has met with the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers over the past week. The Mets, buoyed by billionaire owner Steve Cohen’s deep pockets, are widely considered as the Yankees’ chief competition for Soto’s services.
“I could say that about a couple other owners too,” Steinbrenner said when asked about Cohen’s spending power. “Or corporations, for that matter, that represent the ownership group. So, I mean, of course it’s a concern.”
The Yankees acquired Soto and outfielder Trent Grisham from the San Diego Padres last December for five players. They made the trade knowing that keeping Soto, then an accomplished three-time All-Star entering his age-25 season, beyond one year would require a significant investment. Soto went on to raise his price another level with an excellent 2024 campaign, partnering with Judge to create the most dangerous duo in baseball.
The 26-year-old right fielder belted a career-high 41 home runs with a .288 batting average, .989 OPS, 129 walks and an American League-leading 128 runs scored. He made his fourth All-Star team, and his 8.1 fWAR ranked fourth in the majors. He supplied the production while providing entertainment value with swagger and showmanship and helped lead the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since 2009.
Soto’s looming free agency prompted the Washington Nationals to trade him in July 2022 after he declined a 15-year, $440 million offer and led to the Padres unloading him last year. Now he is expected to command a contract well over $500 million that could break records for highest present-day total value and present-day annual average value. The price the Yankees are willing to pay Soto is unclear.
Last offseason, Steinbrenner said the Yankees established a “walkaway” number when negotiating with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who wound up signing with the Dodgers. The owner said he hasn’t “thought about it” in regard to Soto.
Including Soto’s $31 million salary in 2024, the Yankees had approximately $80 million in free agents come off their books after carrying a $300-million-plus luxury tax payroll. Steinbrenner reiterated that spending that much money on the roster is not tenable.
“We’re in a better starting position than we were a year ago. There’s no doubt about that,” Steinbrenner said. “Look, year after year after year after year, payrolls similar to this year and the luxury taxes they produce are not sustainable. That’s the case for the vast majority of owners, maybe all of them. Year after year after year — it doesn’t mean in any given year I can’t do what I want to do. I mean, we’ve got the ability to sign any player we want to sign.”
Steinbrenner said he didn’t know what was the next step in the Soto pursuit. He said he had “no idea” if the Yankees will meet with him again. Whether the Yankees wait for Soto to make his decision before pivoting to other players remains to be seen.
“Haven’t made that decision,” Steinbrenner said. “But again, guys are going to start to come off the board, right? So that’s a discussion that needs to be had.”
