The New York Yankees have a big offseason coming up regardless of whether they end their 14-year World Series drought.
While almost all of the attention will be on the Juan Soto sweepstakes as soon as the playoffs are concluded, the Yankees may have another star hitting free agency.
Considering the expectation that ace Gerrit Cole will opt out of his current contract, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller went through naming the top landing spots for the Cy Young winner.
Of course, it was established under the notion that Cole opts out and the Yankees decline to void the opt-out by tacking on an extra year at $ 36 million to his contract. The Yankees are more likely to void the opt-out clause and tack on the extra year.
But in this hypothetical scenario the Yankees let Cole test the market, Miller came to the conclusion that the New York Mets are the top landing spot for the 34-year-old ace.
“If [the Mets] win the Juan Soto sweepstakes, it’s hard to imagine they would also be able to land Cole,” Miller wrote. “There’s also the Pete Alonso factor. If they re-sign their impending free agent slugger in lieu of getting Soto, that’s probably a $ 30 million salary as opposed to a $ 40 million salary, but they’d be in a similar situation.
“If anyone would be willing to do it, though, it’s Steve Cohen, who ended up spending close to half a billion dollars last season after factoring in the luxury tax penalties.”
It would be quite the meltdown in The Bronx if either Soto or Cole landed in Queens this offseason.
While it’s not a foregone conclusion that Cole will opt out, the expectation is that he will. Unless he feels he wouldn’t get at least $ 36 million annually on a new deal in free agency, it would be wise to essentially force the Yankees to tack on the extra year to his current contract.
Either way, the Yankees have a potentially franchise-altering offseason coming up, and the Mets seem to be at the center of it.
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