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For a team coming off an A.L. pennant and a trip to the World Series, the Yankees head into the 2024 MLB offseason with a long list of items to address. They got the first one done on Monday, keeping ace pitcher Gerrit Cole in place by preventing him from exercising his opt-out clause, a move that required the Yankees to add another year and $36 million to the end of Cole’s deal.
GM Brian Cashman must figure out what the Yankees will do on the right side of the infield, with first baseman Anthony Rizzo and second baseman Gleyber Torres both hitting free agency, and probably not coming back.
He also has work to do in reconfiguring a bullpen that ultimately let the Yankees down in the postseason, with top reliever Clay Holmes hitting free agency and unlikely to be back after blowing a league-high 13 saves last year.
But no doubt, the ultimate question for Cashman and the Yankees is whether they can entice star outfielder Juan Soto to return, and what it will take to get that to happen in a market that is sure to be red-hot for Soto’s services.
At the MLB analysis site MLB Trade Rumors, a breakdown of the Top 25 free agents begins with Soto. And the number is, certainly, enormous: $600 million over 13 years.
Yankees Just One Year Removed From Trade
Soto is coming off a season in which he hit .288 with a .415 on-base percentage and a .569 slugging mark, and was excellent in the playoffs, where he hit .327 with a scintillating 1.102 OPS, knocking four homers in 14 games. The Yankees got what they were after from him when they acquired him from the Padres last winter.
But it took a hefty haul of prospects to get Soto to the Bronx. That will have been wasted effort if the Yankees allow him to leave.
As MLBTR wrote this week:
“The Yankees, of course, are prepared to get into a bidding war to retain the star for whom they traded last offseason. The crosstown Mets enter the offseason with with nearly $200MM of contractual obligations coming off the books and a spendthrift owner who’ll be emboldened by his club’s unexpected run to the NLCS. Soto’s original club, the Nationals (who took care of a massive portion of their rebuilding effort in one fell swoop with the trade that sent Soto to San Diego), would reportedly ‘love’ a reunion with him. Their president of baseball operations, Mike Rizzo, has stated on record he’s in the market for middle-of-the-order bats this winter.”
Juan Soto’s Market Will Be ‘Wild’
Indeed, the Yankees, Mets and Nationals are the three teams most often mentioned when it comes to signing Soto. But there will be more than three teams involved, of course. MLBTR names the Dodgers, Padres and Giants as potential suitors, too, as well as “pipe-dream” candidates like the Tigers and Orioles.
The Blue Jays, who were surprisingly close on signing star slugger Shohei Ohtani last winter, have been mentioned elsewhere as a dark horse.
“Soto received a qualifying offer and will naturally reject that,” MLBTR wrote. “The draft compensation attached to him won’t matter one iota. This is a once-every-quarter-century free agent. The bidding for Soto will be wild, and we’re expecting him to indeed topple the present-day total and average annual value of Ohtani’s contract.”
NYY will not pay Soto more than Judge or Cole. NY Mets most likely or L.A..