Juan Soto (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The still fairly new reality of the New York Mets being linked to almost every big name available in Major League Baseball’s market will have a new dimension this winter with new president of baseball operations David Stearns pulling the strings. But it hasn’t stopped the endless speculation tying them to superstar outfielder Juan Soto.
The Mets have been considered potential suitors for the past few months since ESPN’s Jeff Passan deemed them as “a scary possibility,” to land the 25-year-old, who appears to be on the trade market with one year left on his contract because the San Diego Padres need to shed roughly 20% of their salary this winter.
Soto, who is going through arbitration, is expected to garner north of $30 million in 2024 which is likely a price too rich for the Padres to fit on their books.
Since Passan’s comments, most of the rumbling involving Soto has connected him more with the Yankees, who are in need of a franchise-altering move to get them out of their current rut amidst the stale regime of Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman — and rightfully so. A left-handed power bat of his caliber is exactly what is needed to rejuvenate things in the Bronx after a rare postseason-less campaign.
Dominican-based baseball writer Hector Gomez further strengthened Soto-to-the-Yankees this week when he reported that “a person very close to Juan Soto just told me that although the Yankees have a very good chance of getting him, he believes that Soto has a better chance of staying with the Padres in the 2024 season than of being traded.”
He then went on to mention that the Mets and Giants have been ‘involved,” in talks with the Padres for Soto, too.
It’s understandable to not give credence to such a report given his previous lack of accuracy on some previous stories, though Gomez generally proves reliable when it comes to Dominican players. This piece is not to challenge the accuracy of his…
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