Yankees beat writer discusses if Juan Soto could take discount to reject Mets

It's widely believed that outfielder Juan Soto will either re-sign with the New York Yankees or join the New York Mets during his free-agency journey that will begin shortly after the upcoming Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series showdown concludes. 

Some have wondered if Soto could have big-name agent Scott Boras give New York even a slight discount in negotiations to build a legacy with the storied franchise. Yankees beat writer Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com touched upon that subject for a piece published Thursday. 

"Because Soto has Boras on his team," Miller explained, "the general feeling in baseball is that he’ll sign with the highest bidder, which could be the other team in New York. Mets owner Steve Cohen, according to internet estimations, has more than five times the net worth as the Steinbrenner family, $21.3B to $4B. The Mets can outbid anyone and probably get Soto if they want him bad enough, and they just might." 

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner acknowledged this past spring that his club's payroll was "not sustainable" long-term due to luxury tax penalties. He made that comment before Soto became a beloved figure among fans of the Bronx Bombers and before the four-time All-Star selection delivered what could become a legendary home run to help send the Yankees to the Fall Classic. 

However, SNY's Danny Abriano noted that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns suggested during Wednesday's end-of-season news conference that the organization could pursue "pretty much the entirety of the player universe" due to the club's "financial flexibility" with numerous contracts coming off the books. Many reporters think the Mets could land Soto, hold onto fan-favorite Pete Alonso, and acquire additional players before the start of spring training. 

"Soto might get more than $600M for 14 or 15 seasons in a bidding war that figures to include the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers," Miller said. Miller added that it's unclear "if the almighty dollar will send [Soto] somewhere else next year if the Mets, Dodgers or someone else bids $100M or $1 more than Steinbrenner" come November. 

Soto and his Yankees teammates are understandably doing everything possible to focus on beating the Dodgers in the World Series that gets underway Friday night. Nevertheless, the uncertain future of the slugger, who turns 26 on Friday, is a storyline that will hover over the best-of-seven set until its final out is recorded.