What Leaving Bronx Says About Soto

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Pregame Pepper

Did you know…

. . . Juan Soto signing as a Met in free agency might be slightly better for his offensive health than playing as or against the Yankees in the south Bronx. His career slash line in Citi Field: .333/.456/.709. (1.175 OPS.) His career slash line in Yankee Stadium: .283/.400/.579. (.979 OPS.)

. . . The invaluable Sarah Langs has brought forth that Soto has hit the fourth and fifth longest home runs in the history of Citi Field: August 10, 2020, a 463-foot blast; and, two days later, a 466-foot blast, which remains the longest home run of Soto’s career.

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Leading Off

Leaving the Yankees Told Me Nothing About Soto

By Payton Ellison

I would be insulting your intelligence if I said I wasn’t affected by Juan Soto signing with the New York Mets on the eve of the Winter Meetings. After one legendary year by the duo of Soto and Aaron Judge, very rarely matched in baseball history unless you’re talking about the legends of the game, Soto elected to take his talents across the Triboro Bridge and to Citi Field in Flushing.

It’s a move astonishing to anyone younger or older than my 24 years: how could he leave the lore of the Yankees for the other team in town.

I could make this article a post-Soto Yankee piece, analyzing what they lost in Soto and dissecting all possible Plan Bs before realizing none of them will equate a future Hall of Famer commonly compared to Ted Williams. I could sit and wonder what possible price point would Steve Cohen, the man who might’ve sent the bidding into the billions if that’s what it took, have balked at. I could come up with multiple conjectures on if the Yankee brand has died down (it has) under the ownership of Hal Steinbrenner and if it needs to change to an aggressive tone like the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers to remain competitive with them.

But this is about Juan Soto, and what I learned about him 39 days after he played his final game as a New York Yankee. With confidence, I can say with positivity that I learned absolutely nothing. Or at least, not anything that I didn’t know before today.

Every single tea leaf, every single statement in the 368 days of Juan Soto affiliation with the New York Yankees, told you that his free agency decision was always going to come down to money. The moment Game Five ended and his post game press conference with his Yankee hat turned so that the Yankee logo faced the wall in a cold-blooded manner, it should’ve told you what the offseason would look like.

No amount of serenades from the right field stands, no amount of home runs into Monument Park, and no matter how many times he exited the Yankee clubhouse towards the famous Joe DiMaggio sign — “I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee”, it reads — to the Yankee dugout would’ve changed that.

Conversely, no security incidents or worries about the future of the Yankees would’ve sent him to the Mets — or Red Sox, Dodgers, or Blue Jays — if the Bronx had the highest bid on the table.

Juan Soto gazes out toward the Citi Field playing surface and scoreboard after his formal introduction as a Met. (New York Mets photo.)

The Yankees’ reported final offer of $760 million over 16 years, around $47.5 million a year, dwarfed the Mets deal of $765 million over 15 years — $51 million a year. That’s the bottom line, not even considering that it’s actually $805 million after a year five opt-out that will surely be exercised (as long as Cohen is the owner of the Mets, he will see all $805 million). It also doesn’t consider the free suite given to Juan Soto and his family, presented as a sticking point in negotiations between him and the Yankees, but in reality, a higher compensation package that pushes the initial value well over $800 million anyway.

It’s the business of working with Scott Boras. Other than Jose Altuve, whose desire to be an Astro for life outweighed any financial gains, it would be hard to find a Boras-affiliated superstar who didn’t test free agency, then signed with the highest bidder. Had the Bob Nutting-owned Pirates put $830 million over 16 years on the table for Soto, he and Boras would be on the same boat as Paul Skenes and Livvy Dunne on the Allegheny River in celebration the next day.

Why? If baseball over the last decade has taught me anything, it’s that the beautiful game I love at the highest level is a business first, the underlying reason why just five organizations — all of high value, all in massive markets, with one team in the biggest market in its country — were willing to go this far for a player that would go into the Hall of Fame with its cap insignia on his plaque.

Scott Boras is one of, and certainly the biggest, answer to the business standard in sports that superstar players have that will be executed as well as possible. But even without the Boras Corp. influence, it was foolish to believe that any sort of romantic pull with ANY team would enter the bidding process considering the first six years of his career. If money wasn’t even a consideration, he would still be on his first team: the Washington Nationals.

It is no secret that Soto loved the organization that he grew in the minor leagues directly into a young superstar and a World Series champion at 20 years old with, similar to its other two former Boras-represented generational talents in Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg. Then, he turned down the 15 year, $440 million extension, Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo shipped him to the Padres in a massive, prospect-laden deal that hasn’t returned anyone close to him so far, and a lengthy ride that led him to three teams in three years began.

His first two teams were quick to ship him for business reasons with no thought of loyalty. Why would we have expected him to extend such hospitality for the organization that, once he steps on the field for the first time in 2026, he’s spent the least amount of time with?

In the end, I can be as upset as I want to be, but I’m not shocked Juan Soto is a Met. The plan was laid out perfectly, a masterclass in self-confidence and business tactics that ended with him being the highest paid player in all of American sports, and that was going to be paid by the rare baseball owner where money is a toy.

Steve Cohen is that owner. He is the owner of the New York Mets. Therefore, Soto is a Met, as we all should’ve expected.

Payton Ellison is the managing editor of Diamond Digest. You can find him on X: @RealPMElli14.

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Cleaning Up

So They’ve Said . . .

Compiled by Jeff Kallman

Just too blunt an instrument to fix this problem. I don’t think it can be prescriptive: ‘You have to go six innings.’ I think it has to be a series of rules that create incentive for the clubs to develop pitchers of a certain type.—Rob Manfred, commissioner of baseball, rejecting a six-inning minimum requirement for starting pitchers.

I kind of thought I'd be going to (the Dodgers). That was what I was being told, and the Yankees snuck in there under the table and got the deal done.—Devin Williams, All-Star relief pitcher, after he was traded from the Brewers for pitcher Nestor Cortes, prospect Caleb Durbin, and cash.

There's a lot of reasons why the Mets drew me in. For one, I think the leadership here. Starts with the Cohen family and David Stearns and Carlos Mendoza. I think just seeing their leadership and their vision, their belief, is definitely something that was very appealing. I think the culture here they've created is something that I think people want to be a part of.—Clay Holmes, former Yankee relief pitcher, who signed with the Mets for three years and $38 million dollars.

[We hope] the baseball will be displayed in Dodger Stadium so all Dodgers and baseball fans can view a very special piece of history for the city of Los Angeles.—The Ruderman family, who caught the ball Freddie Freeman smashed for the Game One-winning grand slam in this year’s World Series, after the ball sold at auction for $1.56 million last Saturday night. (The kicker: No one knows who ponied up for the ball . . . yet.)

Jeff Kallman now edits the Wednesday and Thursday editions of Here’s the Pitch.

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Extra Innings

* Juan Soto, Game Seven, 2019 World Series—He was aboard with a one-out walk in the top of the seventh when Howie Kendrick hit the opposite-field, foul pole-ringing two-run homer that put the Nationals ahead of the Houston Astros to stay.

* One inning later, with two outs, Soto singled Adam Eaton home with the first of two Nats insurance runs. Eaton returned the favour in the top of the ninth when he singled Yan Gomes home with the second Nats insurance run and the final run of that Series.

* Soto has a lifetime .281/.389/.538 slash line (.927 OPS) in 43 postseason games played through the end of the 2024 season. In two World Series (2019, 2024), Soto’s slash line is .326/.473/.674. (OPS: 1.147.)