Mets' Francisco Lindor makes recruitment pitch to Yankees' Juan Soto

There remains no indication as of the final week of August that New York Yankees All-Star outfielder Juan Soto will sign an extension with the club before he reaches free agency after the ongoing season. 

For a piece published by ESPN on Tuesday, New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor essentially acknowledged that Soto's camp should expect to hear from big-spending team owner Steve Cohen at some point this fall. 

"When it comes to the outfielder from across our borough," Lindor said about Soto during a chat with ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan, "he's having a fantastic year and I hope he goes out there and breaks every record out there when it comes to getting paid. If it's with us, it'll be fantastic. He'll help us a lot."

Yankees captain Aaron Judge reportedly wouldn't care about the club handing Soto a contract worth more annually than the nine-year, $360M deal Judge signed to stay with the organization in December 2022, but that doesn't mean the 25-year-old is a lock to re-up with the Bronx Bombers. 

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner previously warned that the team's payroll is "not sustainable" due to luxury-tax penalties, and that was before Soto set a single-season career high of 37 home runs across just 129 games. 

"At the end of the day, high-ranking front office and ownership-level sources believe the winter for Soto is going to play out like this: Yankees vs. Mets," Passan shared. "...The data says that once a player hits 30, his career will likely regress. So to get a superstar for four full seasons before he turns 30 -- and do it without having to give up players in a trade -- makes him the consummate Mets target." 

The Mets completed what was, on paper, a rather uninspiring offseason coming off a disappointing 2023 campaign and then began this season at 22-33 before they enjoyed a summer resurgence. They entered Wednesday morning at 69-63 and were three games back in the battle for the National League's final wild-card playoff spot at that time. 

Assuming Soto is serious about resetting the market for sluggers, he could receive anywhere between $500M-$600M over 10-12 years via his next contract. Per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, Yankees manager Aaron Boone recently mentioned he believes Soto "has enjoyed being here and likes being a part of this group and is a large voice in our room." 

Whether or not Soto likes being a Yankee enough to give the franchise any kind of discount before Christmas remains to be seen.