All those enticements, those future moments...
Turns out, they didn't matter.
Nope. What matters is the Almighty Dollar -in this case, $765 million, an obscene amount that Soto will squeeze from the Mets - our crosstown rival - a knife in the back that shall define and confine him for the rest of his life. Et tu, Soto?
In the end, he chose the money. Every last, thin dime.
And here's the weird part:
For some reason, I didn't think he would.
Yes, I'm a fool. Whatever made me think otherwise? Soto warned us, all year, from the day he arrived: Come winter, he'd declare free agency and - under the guidance of Scott Boras - sell himself to the highest bidder. What was I thinking? That this is a Hallmark movie? That he'd be affected by the rollcalls, the bleacher creatures, the loving fans, the people of the Bronx, the history of the franchise, the teammates, John & Suzyn, the Uber drivers, the old guys who scrape gum off the dugout floors - that, in the end, little things would carry the day?
How could I be so naive! Of course, they didn't matter. What mattered was the difference between - say - $751, 000,000.00 and $751,000,000.01.
Good day for capitalism. Sad day for the Yankees, for baseball, and - though I doubt he realizes it, eventually, a sad day for Soto.
Mister Met.
Look, I'm not letting Food Stamps Hal off the hook. He should have kept going. But I can't shake the feeling that one reality was becoming clear: Steve Cohen would pay whatever it took, because that's his thing, and we live in a world where some guys have infinite resources. This was always gonna end with Soto as a Met. From the looks of things, Hal bid higher than he rightfully should have. But it didn't matter. Only the dollars mattered.
Listen: With enough money, you can spackle-over whole a lotta graffiti on a bathroom wall. Soto will be baseball's richest player - enough money to buy a smiling reputation from everyone in his entourage. But beginning April 1 - April Fools Day - half the fans in NYC will snicker over each 0-for-4, each impending hamstring pull, with the tears of a croc.
Damn, I shouldn't let this affect me. Why did I think otherwise? In the end, Soto was always just a mercenary, a hired hand, a guy who would come and go.
It's too soon to start hating.
But I'll get there.
Bless you, Duque…
ReplyDeleteThat is just a ridiculous amount of money tied up in a one dimensional, albeit incredible, hitter.
ReplyDeleteAs long as Hal now pivots to other worthy players, I can see the NYY better next year and for years to come.
Fill out those holes In the lineup, Ca$h-money! Fast!
If he does, Pgpick, I'll be amazed.
DeleteMaybe it was the money. Maybe it was mostly the money. Maybe the money, once you get up into the stratosphere, isn't that big a deal--except to Boras. Does he get paid a percentage of the dough as a commission? I don't know how that works.
ReplyDeleteBut put the money together with ownership commitment, with a competent manager, with a farm system that isn't ripped apart every time Cashman needs a new toy ("I'm shaking the bush, boss!"), with a team that can catch the ball and run the bases...well, where would you go? Wouldn't be the Yankees.
Many of us are pretty old. And we're not going to see another ring in our lifetimes. Hal and Cashman and Boone will see to that.
Yeah, agents work on a % basis. At least last I heard. They get 5%. Hot damn, wish I had been Soto's agent!
DeleteWill Keefe's next post be his last, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI hope not.
DeleteIt's just about money. That's all. When Soto hired Scott Boras and turned down $440M from the Nationals in 2022, he made it clear what his free-agent goal would be. He wanted to smash the record and make every possible penny. So he did. I wouldn't read more into it than that. It's not like he gave the Mets a discount. They offered the most money, so he went there. The end.
ReplyDeleteFor once, I'm NOT annoyed with Hal Steinbrenner. Hal offered Soto the biggest contract in baseball history, but Cohen went higher. Hal offered Soto the Aaron Judge money + the Gerrit Cole money + an extra $80M. Can't say he didn't try. I think no matter how far the Yankees went, Cohen was willing to add just a bit more. It is what it is.
Emotionally, I'm more worried about what Brian Cashman will do this winter than sad/angry about losing Soto. The Yankees need to stick to their actual evaluations of free agents and not panic overpay/overbuy because they lost Cano...errr Soto. Don't give Alex Bregman the next Jacoby Ellsbury contract, for example. Don't exact "revenge" by signing Pete Alonso to a deal outpacing his actual on-field talent, please.
In hindsight, that $330M contract for Bryce Harper looks like a steal. The Phillies paid/are paying $25M AAV for Harper's age 26-38 seasons. The Mets are paying $51M AAV for Soto's age 26-40 seasons. I think the error by the Yankees was missing out on Harper's prime, not bowing out at $760M for Soto.
This Yankees team continues to get older. The Yankees' top AAV in 2025: Judge (33), Cole (34), Stanton (35), Rodon (32), Stroman (34), and LeMahieu (36). That's a lot of money tied up in guys who are at the end or past their prime. We desperately need young guys like Wells and Gil to not fade in their sophomore seasons like prior top Yankee rookies. We need Volpe's bat to develop, and we need Jasson to be legit. We have to supplement the costly, aging group with cheap young talent to maintain winning records going forward. If Judge begins to fade, the idea of retooling at some point in the next few years becomes a more realistic option with Soto out of the picture.
Yep, I don't want Alex Bregman. Not only a cheater. But past his prime and on the way down. Those cheap pop fly ball homers to left won't happen at Yankee Stadium like they do in that Houston train station.
DeleteIn hindsight, Aaron Judge was a triple steal. What'd I say about Judge's contract? 360 M was about as team friendly a contract as you're going to get. It was out-done in foolishness only by Shohei Ohtani putting off his money for 10 to 20 years, resulting in an incredible steal for the Dodgers.
DeleteI said a few days ago that I thought Boras was using the Yankees to drive up the Mets price on Soto. Still feel that way...
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for Juan. He got paid. But, not to be Nostradamus, the Mets have a history of making signings and something goes south.I'm not wishing it on Juan, but I wouldn't be surprised if an injury happens and it doesn't work out. I personally think we dodged the bullet. The money can be spent better with two or three players...
It was always my contention that Soto would be one and done here. (Juan and done?) Unfortunately, we will have to listen to the carping of Mets fans about this. I’m not so cold blooded as to say it doesn’t bother me that he rejected our team, but looking at the overall state of affairs here, I can understand his decision a little better. This franchise is a shell of what it once was, now mostly reduced to selling nostalgia to legacy fans and tourists. Let’s see what team management does now, will they try to bounce back aggressively or just fall back to half-measures and gaslighting?
ReplyDelete"a greedy betrayal"? Duque, I know you're angry, but gotta disagree with you on that point. If Soto wanted to win a championship, why the hell would he want to stay here? Yanks aren't going to win with Cashman & Boone. If Soto wanted the most money, why would he stay here? The team right next door is offering more, a lot more, not just a penny more.
ReplyDeleteI was mistaken in saying the greedy betrayal would define Soto for the rest of his life. I meant to say, "for the rest of eternity."
DeleteBesides, I think the Mets are better situated in Flushing the toilet. Because there's big development coming. A lot better than Da Bronx. Cohen knows how to make money. The Latino & Hispanic community will gravitate even more toward the Mets. Especially when they finally win their third championship.
ReplyDeleteI said from the get-go that getting Soto was a DUMB DUMB DUMBASS move. You're trading four pitchers plus a serviceable backup catcher for one year of Soto. They could've traded all that for somebody else who'd be here for the next four years. Maybe even gotten two players.
ReplyDeleteThey weren't going to win a championship even with Soto. Amazingly, yes, they did make it to the World Series. Only to get thrashed and thoroughly embarassed. That terrible inning that will live on infamy. Right up there with the 2004 collapse against the Red Sox in the playoffs. New jaw dropping negative achievements every year for the New York Yankees. At one time, the greatest sports franchise in the world. Now, nothing but a colossal failure. Soon to be the biggest laughing stock in baseball. Why the hell would Soto want to be a part of that?
The time to get Soto was back when Washington did the garage sale. Never having even made a bid, they never should've traded for him with only one year left on his free agency.
ReplyDeleteI’m not stressing it, the Mets have no pitching. Stop will spend the next 15 years imitating Mike Trout with the angels
ReplyDeleteThe way to look at it is that the Yankees probably dodged a humungous artillery shell. They'll be better off without this financial millstone around their necks, which millstone is a million times bigger than the Giancarlo Stanton pebble.
ReplyDeleteSoto will probably get hurt next year. He played through some issues this year too. Perhaps because of the pending free agency payday. I give the guy props. He plays hard. Definitely no Carl Pavano! But next year, he'll be playing even harder for the Mets and will blow out a wheel.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it was entirely about the cash. It was too close for that.
ReplyDeleteI think Hoss writing about nepo babies nailed it a while ago.
Let's face it Steve Cohen is the Guy That MADE the Money. Hal is a nepo baby.
Cohen has the ability to convince. Hal can lay out the positives of a deal.
Cohen bought the Mets with the sole purpose of creating a long term winning team. Hal can't get rid of his friend Brian even after it has been proven that he sucks at his job and it's ok because the bottom line is good.
If you had to spend 15 years on a team run by one of them which would you pick?
Juan Cano Soto wanted to extract the last possible penny...nothin more nothing less. At the end of the day in today's era money talks. Now he can say he got more money Ohtani
ReplyDeleteFrom Yanks Go Yard:
ReplyDelete"Upon further review, there was a wider gulf in these reported offers than expected. No further details have emerged on the Yankees' 16-year, $760 million attempt. There were no opt outs, escalators, or anything beyond the numbers at face value.
The Mets' offer? It's actually an $805 million deal. Soto can opt out of the contract after five years, and Steve Cohen can void it by increasing the average annual value from $51 million to $55 million, which is where the escalators come in.
If Soto were to opt out at that point in time, he'd be heading into his age-31 season with a chance at another monster payday or the opportunity to get out of Queens should this run with the Mets go sour (and it very well might). But in the end, Soto did not reject the Yankees over $5 million — he saw $45 more million and the chance to hit free agency again, deeming that superior. That explains it."
Don't know if this is accurate or not. Also doesn't make me any happier.
For me this whole thing it's not so much about Soto not being a Yankee (time will show who was right and who got lucky) as the Yankees being exposed as an organization that isn't particularly appealing,
We all knew this. We all complain about it. But it still stings.
We only had him for one year. I don't think that obligated him to us, or that his leaving counts as a betrayal. People are reacting like he was homegrown, or part of a great, longstanding roster. But yes, it stings.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the joke is on the Mets as the Yanks upped Soto's signing price. He is a great hitter, but as was already stated, a one-dimensional player.
ReplyDelete$51 million a year is too much for any ballplayer. I don't care if he's Babe Ruth with Nolan Ryan's arm and Ted Williams's work ethic. And 15 years is too long, even if he's still young now. He could trip over a sprinkler head tomorrow and never be the same player again.
ReplyDeleteWe all would like for the Yankees to be the Yankees again, to lock up Soto long term and then go out and sign ten other top free agents just to put the fear of God into the rest of baseball. But we all know that's not in the cards. What MIGHT be in the cards would be signing a few B-tier players. And a team with a roster as flawed as this, with so many gaps and question marks all over the field, needs that more than a single superstar.
As for Soto's perspective, well, who among us can say how important it is to make $765 million rather than $760 million or whatever. All other things being equal, it makes sense to go for the bigger offer. And as JM and others have pointed out, all other things are not equal, and playing for Cohen's Mets might be a lot more attractive than spending the next decade and a half on an aging, incompetent Yankees team.
What I hope comes out (this winter) is that Soto would’ve taken the Yankees lesser offer if he believed in the team’s management/development process. But based on what he saw, he realized the team simply can’t/won’t compete competently, so there was no reason to take less money.
ReplyDeleteHAL and CashBrain will do nothing. Expect a replay of 2023. If we're even that lucky.
ReplyDeleteHinkey, competing doesn't improve the profits.
ReplyDeleteNext year's game meet up should be at a minor league game.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part will be all the incoming 30+ year olds that are a year or so from breaking down that Cashole will infuse the team with. Boring same ole same ole
ReplyDelete