While speaking with Jon Heyman of the New York Post prior of Tuesday’s game between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, Yankees outfielder Juan Soto appropriately did not confirm or deny that he could have agent Scott Boras meet with Mets owner Steve Cohen once free agency begins this fall.
“We will see,” Soto said of entering the free market after the World Series. “During the offseason, we will work it out. I’ll let Scott Boras do his thing. “We’ll see.”
Soto was frequently connected to the Mets this spring, but an unnamed inside source indicated last month that the 25-year-old slugger would not “play for a joke of a team.”
While the Mets were struggling at the time, they gained momentum in June and improved to 38-39 on the season with a 9-7 victory over the Yankees on Tuesday.
Soto joined the Yankees from the San Diego Padres in December and has regularly expressed a fondness for playing with the Bronx Bombers. That pattern persisted on Tuesday.
“It’s been great, it’s been an amazing experience,” Soto told Heyman. “It’s been fun — excellent teammates and players. So far, everything has been amazing. It’s great to bat in front of [Yankees captain Aaron Judge]. It just makes my job easier, and I hope I can make his job easier as well.”
Soto hit.305 in his first 78 games in pinstripes, with 19 home runs, 57 RBI, and a 1.004 OPS. As much as Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner will want to keep Soto at a fair price, Heyman identified the Mets as “the biggest outside threat to sign” the three-time All-Star before Christmas.
“Cohen is the only owner who can buy almost anyone he wants,” Heyman noted. “Give Cohen this. He wants to win so much that he is willing to lose a lot of money. According to the Post, the Mets lost more than $200 million last year, and it stands to reason that this year will be similar, with salary down only marginally and attendance down.
In summary, talk about Cohen perhaps taking Soto from the Yankees will not die down anytime soon.
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