Aaron Boone opens up about Juan Soto leaving Yankees

DALLAS — On Tuesday at the MLB winter meetings, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was open and honest about his team not winning the Juan Soto sweepstakes.

After trading for Soto during last year's winter meetings in Nashville, Soto provided a boost for the Yankees on the way to the American League pennant last season. His .288/.419/.569 slash line and 41 home runs and 109 RBI helped not only pave the way for the Yankees to reach the World Series, but also open the door to a bidding frenzy this offseason for his services.

Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets just before the start of this year's winter meetings, leaving the Yankees trying to figure out what moves need to be made in order to make up for Soto's loss.

"It kind of hurts in the moment, but when you live in the business and you live in the sport — again, it is sports. It doesn't always go your way," Boone told reporters on Tuesday. "It's now an opportunity for us to — and our expectation is to still go out and build and put together a great team to go compete for a championship again next year. That doesn't stop."

Even though Soto did not re-sign with the Yankees, Boone made it very clear that he hoped Soto would return to the Bronx in 2025.

"Obviously we wanted the player back," Boone said. "Ownership and the front office, I think, did everything we could to make it happen. It just didn't. But as I told these guys yesterday, that's sports.

"Ultimately, Juan earned the right to be in the position that he's in, and he made a decision that he felt like was best. We went into this eyes wide open. It was a year ago when we were sitting here, and I remember making the deal at the winter meetings. We knew there was no guarantees of anything moving forward."

While Boone won't have Soto in the lineup in 2025, he took the high road on Tuesday with his praise for the 26-year-old phenom.

"I think as much as it hurt to make the deal with some of the players that we lost, looking back, I feel like it was the right thing to do and served us well," Boone said. "He had an amazing season obviously with us.

"Personally speaking, loved getting to know him and getting to be his manager and respect ultimately his decision that he made."