Just a week after reporting that the New York Yankees were facing a “rising threat” from their arch-rivals the Boston Red Sox in the hunt to sign generational free agent slugger Juan Soto, veteran New York Post baseball insider Jon Heyman reported on Monday that the Bombers remain very much in contention for the 26-year-old who belted a carer-high 41 homers last season.
Heyman appeared on the Foul Territory podcast, hosted by former MLB Network reporter Scott Braun and retired Major League catcher A.J. Pierzynski, to relay his latest updates on the quest to acquire Soto. The columnist said that he expects Soto to make his decision within days.
Soto Decision ‘Perhaps’ Just One Week Away
“I would say we’re only perhaps a week away from something coming to fruition,” Heyman told the podcast. “I think they’ve gone through two rounds of bidding. I think we’re up to the next round, and maybe we’ll start to see some teams eliminated. I don’t know if that’s going to become public or not.”
But despite reports that the Red Sox are now strong contenders for Soto, as are the New York Mets, causing the Yankees significant worry that they can retain the superstar, Heyman said that Yankees are still “involved” and have a shot.
In fact, Heyman reported that at least until the next round of bidding on Soto is complete, all five teams that have been reported as making offers to Soto are still in the running. In addition to the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays remain in contention to land Soto.
“Basically, I would give any of these five teams a shot,” Heyman said. “Any of them.”
Last week, Heyman in his New York Post column reported that the Yankees had “upgraded their initial bid” for Soto, “improving their position in a sweepstakes that involves at least five big-market teams.”
Chance Exists That Soto Does Not Take Highest Bid
Heyman did not, however, report details of what the Yankees upgraded offer actually was. He did report that the Yankees expressed their willingness to add opt-out clauses to Soto’s contract, giving the star a chance to test free agency again before he turns 30. But Heyman added that the opt-out provision probably wouldn’t make a difference because the other contenders for Soto’s services would also include opt-out clauses.
Braun asked Heyman if, in his view, there was any chance that Soto would not simply accept the highest cash offer that he receives. The baseball insider responded that though there was some possibility that Soto might not go to the highest bidder, it was “not likely” that anything but the highest bid would get the job done.
However, Heyman pointed out in each of the previous two years the superstar free agent on the market accepted a lower money offer to play in the city where he wanted to live. In 2023-2024 Shohei Ohtani took a deal with the Dodgers that deferred about 97 percent of his payments for an entire decade.
The previous offseason, Yankees home run king Aaron Judge spurned a $415 million, 12-year offer from the San Diego Padres to stay in the Bronx on a $360 million, 10-year deal.
