The New York Mets had to come from behind to land Juan Soto in free agency.
A report from the New York Post's Jon Heyman on Thursday shed some light on the chase for Soto. In it, Heyman claims the Mets' first two contract offers trailed the initial offer from a mystery team. He never revealed who that mystery team was.
From the article:
The five-team bidding on Soto started between the $440M he declined from Nats in 2022 and $500M.
The Mets trailed one team’s first bid even with their initial second bid.
So, it was quite a comeback to get that done!
The five teams generally accepted to have been the frontrunners in the chase for Soto were the Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Blue Jays were widely expected to be among the top bidders for Soto, so they are a candidate, while the Yankees reportedly made a $760 million offer to Soto before he signed with the Mets. Either team is a possibility.
In the end, the Mets won out, landing the 26-year-old superstar with a 15-year, $765 million megadeal. It wasn't easy, though, and apparently, they needed to make a comeback to land him.
