By Conor Roche The Red Sox are making a play for the top free agent on the market this offseason. Boston met with Juan Soto in Southern California on Thursday, reportedly having a “productive” three-hour session that left the star outfielder “impressed.” While several top members of the Red Sox’ organization were in attendance for the meeting, they didn’t make a formal offer as owner John Henry wasn’t in attendance, according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam .
Soto is reportedly slated to continue to meet with teams through the start of next week. It’s unclear how long he’ll take to make a final decision or even when the next step in his process will be. But the Red Sox seem to be among the handful of teams in the mix to sign Soto.
So, let’s take a look at how he would fit in with the Red Sox between his contract, spot in the lineup, and position on the field along with his potential to hit well at Fenway. How would Soto impact the Red Sox’ payroll? Soto is going to get a monster deal that will likely be one of the largest ever in North American sports history and could push the Red Sox to become a luxury tax-paying team again. Of course, no one knows exactly what Soto will receive yet.
But if we took the contract projections from MLB Trade Rumors (13 years, $600 million), The Athletic ’s Tim Britton (13 years, $611 million), The Athletic ’s Jim Bowden (15 years, $622 million), and CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson (12 years, $600 million) and averaged them out.
