The New York Yankees would like nothing more than to kick off their offseason by re-signing superstar outfielder Juan Soto.
If they can’t, they reportedly have a much less straightforward Plan B.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported Monday that the Yankees would seek multiple positions to upgrade if they cannot sign Soto, who is expected to command the largest contract of any free agent this offseason — if not ever.
The Yankees are one of five teams (along with the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers) who have already met with Soto in Southern California this month. The teams who lose the Soto derby will, in theory, have plenty of money to spend elsewhere on their 2025 rosters.
For the Yankees, Nightengale wrote, “one back-up plan floating around is signing free-agent first baseman Christian Walker, sign either Willy Adames or Alex Bregman to play third, shift Jazz Chisholm to second base, trade for Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger, and then use the extra money to sign (Corbin) Burnes, (Max) Fried or (Blake) Snell.”
All of the free agents Nightengale listed have been connected to other teams. There’s no guarantee the Yankees will be able to pivot that smoothly away from Soto if need be.
Neither is this a pressing concern. Buster Olney of ESPN on Twitter/X reported teams will begin forwarding offers to Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, this week.
Sources involved in the Juan Soto talks expect the teams will begin forwarding offers this week. To date, the process has been about Soto meeting with teams/club officials, and about those officials getting to know Soto.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 24, 2024
The latest report offers a useful rubric for how the Soto sweepstakes might unfold. Teams that have the money to sign him will have to quickly pivot — and will have the resources to do so — if Soto signs elsewhere.
That makes the timeline for tracking Soto’s signing so important. The longer he waits to sign, the longer the teams who consider signing Soto their “Plan A” will ostensibly wait to go about the rest of their offseason business. That could effectively serve as a damper pedal on baseball’s already notoriously slow-developing free-agent market.
Soto was instrumental in helping the Yankees return to the World Series for the first time since 2009. Batting ahead of American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge, he hit 41 homers, scored an AL-leading 128 runs, drove in 109, and reached base at a .419 clip in his first season in the Bronx.
