There is one clear objective for the New York Yankees once the hot stove turns on this offseason.
Doing anything they can to bring back superstar right fielder Juan Soto is the sole focus of the offseason for the Yankees.
They will surely have immense competition, especially from the crosstown rival New York Mets, who are expected to go hard after the 25-year-old phenom.
The Yankees still appear to be the favorites to re-sign the lefty slugger, and that’s exactly what Joel Rueter of Bleacher Report predicted will happen.
“The optics of letting Juan Soto get away might be too damning for the New York Yankees not to meet his asking price, even if it takes a $ 500 million deal to keep him around,” Rueter wrote. “There are worse strategies than going all-in on an Aaron Judge-Juan Soto tandem for the foreseeable future and hoping the pieces fall into place around them.”
The Yankees should be expected to go all-in on Soto even though they only have about $ 106 million coming off the books this offseason. Almost half of that could go to Soto assuming they don’t defer any money down the road.
Meanwhile, the Mets find themselves in a strong position to make a push for Soto due to the fact that they’re projected to get roughly $ 175 million off the books.
Soto has been everything the Yankees and the fanbase could have dreamed of when they traded for him last offseason.
In 136 games, Soto is slashing .295/.423/.592 with 38 home runs, 98 RBI, 112 runs scored, 112 walks and a 182 OPS.
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