The Yankees Made the Right Decision Regarding This Player

By Derek McAdam

December 11, 2024

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This past Sunday evening, the (likely) biggest baseball-related news story of the off-season broke. Juan Soto made his decision, and after spending a season with the New York Yankees, he announced that he was going to cross boroughs and spent the next portion of his career with the New York Mets.

But the biggest kicker was not the fact that he went to the Mets, since I think many fans speculated that would be the ultimate destination. It was how much money and how many years were being committed to the 26-year old. Soto agreed to a 15-year contract that has a base value of $765 million, but could wind up being worth more than $800 million by the contract’s expiration.

When the news broke, I was actually relieved that the Yankees did not win the Soto sweepstakes. I thought Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract he signed last off-season with the Los Angeles Dodgers was absolutely ridiculous, but the Soto contract makes Ohtani’s deal look much better.

While Ohtani did not pitch in 2024 due to recovery from Tommy John surgery, he should be cleared to pitch in Spring Training. But, he also had a historic season in 2024. Not only did he win the NL MVP, but he had a 50-50 season in which he hit more than 50 home runs and stole more than 50 bases, the first player in MLB history to do so. Not only that, but he was a crucial component of helping the Dodgers win a World Series.

For Ohtani, he is only going to become more valuable to the Dodgers. He will likely continue to give opposing teams a headache in the batter’s box, but now will be able to get back on the mound and be the likely ace of a starting rotation that just added Blake Snell.

Here is where Soto comes into play. The Mets are giving him $765 million to pretty much be a one-dimensional player. Soto is absolutely lethal in the batter’s box, as he has the incredible ability to work counts and hit for average and power. But he’s a huge liability in the outfield and does not have much speed on the bases. How many times throughout the season did Soto misplay fly balls in right field? I couldn’t count on my two hands how many times I personally witnessed it occur.

The Yankees are in a position in which they HAVE to improve their defense. Aaron Judge did the best he could in center field, but he is not a center fielder. He may be tall and can cover a lot of ground, but he belongs in right field. The Yankees need someone more versatile that can play center field, such as a Jazz Chisholm or a Cody Bellinger-type of player. And while I’m not saying Soto was the only defensive problem that the Yankees had, he was arguably their biggest issue, even though it doesn’t exactly show on the stat sheet.

Fans also cannot accuse Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner of being cheap. The Yankees reportedly made a very generous offer of 16-years, $760 million to Soto, which is way more than I would be comfortable with. But for Soto, the writing was on the wall that he was going to go to the team that would pay him the most money. Mets’ owner Steve Cohen was also adamant about making sure that he would not be out-bid for Soto’s services. Soto was going for greed in his next contract, but I don’t exactly say that in a negative way.

For starters, if I was a professional baseball player, I would more than likely be taking the offers that paid me the highest amount of money. I don’t doubt that Soto wants to win, but he does have a World Series ring. If he never played another inning of baseball, at least he can say he is part of an exclusive club of players that won a World Series title. At this point, he can just chase additional rings.

As part of his contract, Soto was also able to receive a suite at Citi Field for his family to attend games. However, the Yankees were reportedly not willing to include a suite for him, citing the fact that even former captain Derek Jeter and current captain Judge have never had a suite. It’s great that Soto was able to negotiate that into his contract, but I don’t disagree with how the Yankees went about that. They stood their ground and did not try and cave to his every demand. After all, his $51 million annual salary could easily pay for a suite.

But look at the situation that Soto is going into. The Mets bringing him in is an upgrade for them. They managed to get to the NLCS without Soto. And yes, while their team will look a little different in 2025, they still have a core of players together. If Pete Alonso leaves the Mets, they pretty much replaced him with Soto, which is an upgrade at the plate.

The Yankees had Soto for a full season and managed to make their first World Series appearance in 15 years, but they weren’t exactly close to winning the title. If the Yankees were to have signed Soto, they weren’t upgrading the team. In fact, I would argue the team would get worse, because signing Soto would likely mean the Yankees would not be able to make any additional “big” acquisitions. Now that Soto is off to Queens, the Yankees have an abundance of options in front of them.

As I have said in the past, the Yankees came into the off-season with several areas of concern to address. The Yankees need another starting pitcher, an outfielder, a couple of infielders, and possibly even a bullpen arm or two. They aren’t simply one or even two players away from winning a World Series.

While the Yankees now have the freedom to have more options to fill these positions of need this off-season, it now falls into Cashman’s hands to actually get the deals done. Every off-season, the Yankees are almost always “interested” in the top free agents. Part of that is the media, but I think agents also like putting it out there that teams such as the Yankees or Dodgers are interested in their clients, usually since it can drive their price up. So those rumors sometimes have to be taken with a grain of salt.

But the next couple of weeks are going to be interesting for the Yankees. Are they able to sign a top free agent starter or potentially agree to a trade for one? Do they bring in Bellinger or perhaps Kyle Tucker to fill the outfield void(s)? We will soon get the answers that we have been looking for since the Yankees’ 2024 season ended on Oct. 30.

Ultimately, the Yankees avoided a potential long-term disaster. Yankees’ fans know how devastating long-term contracts have been to this team, and while Soto can still have another decade of great statistics at the plate, it is simply not worth the money that he received from the Mets. Luckily, the drama was not dragged on for too long, and the Yankees can now proceed forward.