The writing has been on the wall for some time that the New York Yankees are going to have to stave off the crosstown-rival Mets for Juan Soto’s signature this winter when the superstar right fielder hits free agency. Those sentiments only appear to be strengthening as the Major League Baseball season hits its 2024 stretch run — ESPN’s Jeff Passan being the latest to suggest that it will be an all-New-York battle for the 25-year-old. “At the end of the day, high-ranking front office and ownership-level sources believe the winter for Soto is going to play out like this: Yankees vs.
Mets. Behemoth vs. behemoth,” he wrote.
“The most enthralling free agency battle imaginable.” Soto is playing himself into a historic deal. In his first season with the Yankees after being acquired from the San Diego Padres in the winter, he already has a career-high 37 home runs and full-season (non-COVID-year) bests of a .
600 slugging percentage and 1.027 OPS. With it, he has created one of the most feared duos the game of baseball has ever seen alongside Aaron Judge, who is in pursuit of breaking his own single-season American League home run record of 62 set two years ago.
But Soto, who turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract with the Washington Nationals in 2022, is going to make at least $500 million on his next deal — and that is the bare minimum. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports That is where things grow uncertain when it comes to the Yankees’ willi.