New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is scheduled to meet with free-agent outfielder Juan Soto and Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, next week in Southern California, according to the New York Post. Soto and Boras are expected to meet with other owners and braintrust groups between now and whenever Soto makes his decision.
The Mets are widely considered to be one of the top suitors for Soto, joining a race that figures to also involve other heavy spenders, like the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, among others. Cohen has met with other priority free agents in the past, including multiple times with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite those meetings, Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers.
Soto, 26, was recently ranked by CBS Sports as the best free agent on the market. In parts of seven big-league seasons to date, he’s amassed a career .285/.421/.532 slash line (160 OPS+) with 201 home runs. His contributions have been worth an estimated 36.4 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s calculations. That very much puts him on a Hall of Fame trajectory despite his youth.
On that note, it’s worth pointing out that only one player in Major League Baseball history has amassed more WAR through their age-25 season than Soto and also reached free agency in their mid-20s: Alex Rodriguez, who signed a then-record 10-year, $252 million pact with the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez’s deal came during the winter of 2000 and was negotiated by — who else? — Boras.
Boras told reporters on Wednesday that Soto intends to prioritize signing with a team whose owner is committed to winning. One ventures to guess that any owner willing to pony up for Soto’s services, however many hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions it’ll require, will be deemed a fit.
