SAN ANTONIO — While discussing Juan Soto’s free agency Wednesday at this week’s general managers’ meetings, agent Scott Boras made it clear that the star outfielder wanted to connect with owners.
So it comes as no surprise that New York Mets owner Steve Cohen plans to fly next week to California, home of the Boras Corporation headquarters, to see Soto, league sources confirmed.
The development is an important one. First, it signals that the Soto sweepstakes are well underway. Second, it proves that the Mets, as widely expected, hold a strong interest in signing Soto, the best player available.
It’s likely that other owners will make trips to California, too. As one executive put it, everyone should at least try. Soto presents a special opportunity as one of the game’s stars at just 26 years old. Players like him rarely reach free agency at his age.
Thus, the list of potential suitors for Soto goes beyond just the Mets and the New York Yankees, the team he excelled with this past season. But between the New York clubs, industry sources quickly point out that the Yankees face the most pressure to secure Soto. After all, he just helped lead them to the American League pennant and got to know the organization. The question industry sources raise: Will the Yankees pay enough?
Mets owner Steve Cohen has a knack for recognizing sincerity, those who know him say. So his early meeting with Juan Soto will set the tone for talks. (Doug Murray / Associated Press)
That’s where Cohen and the Mets come in. People in the industry say they’ll either land Soto or at the very least raise the price tag and make it harder on the Yankees (or anyone else).
There are important things worth keeping in mind regarding Cohen’s meeting with Soto. Those who have dealt with him in negotiations and job meetings say Cohen can sniff out sincerity. He’s mindful of not wanting to be used. If money and winning matter most to Soto, then authenticity shouldn’t be an issue; the Mets can check those boxes. Also, Cohen takes a skillful approach to these meetings, as shown last year through his encounters with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It didn’t work out because Yamamoto ultimately picked the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Cohen tried to get the little things right while taking a big swing at someone he really wanted.
The Mets have shown that they are interested in Soto. They have the ability to get aggressive with a potential offer. The upcoming meetings will likely determine just how aggressively they should act from here.
Executives say this offseason should be telling regarding how Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns works with Cohen’s budget. Stearns is coming off a successful first year but wasn’t hired to just write checks. The things that stood out to rivals about what made the Mets front office successful in 2024: discipline with offseason transactions and accountability, knowing when to make in-season roster changes. The way people in the industry see it, those things are transferable to 2025. The question about Stearns that some rival executives share with skepticism is his appetite for potential long-term deals with pitchers at the top of the market.
Regarding the Mets’ task of mostly remaking their bullpen again, Stearns said that he “doesn’t necessarily look at this as we have to add the guy with the end-of-the-game experience or the guy with the eighth-inning experience.” He added, “If that happens, and we think that’s the right fit and the right deal, that’s great. Otherwise, we’ll piece together a bullpen that we think can be quite effective.”
A popular question this week that several reporters posed to different clubs was what lessons can be taken from the Dodgers, fresh off their World Series victory. The bullpen might be one area. Los Angeles’ successful bullpen didn’t feature many, if any, household names.
One path the Mets can take in the bullpen, Stearns said, involves the strategy from last year in which they signed a batch of relievers to one-year deals. Last year’s group mostly banked on upside, stuff and different characteristics. Some of the relievers last year lacked command and late-game experience. Overall, the group was inconsistent. That’s just one potential path for constructing a unit often subject to more year-to-year volatility than other position groups regardless of strategy.
On whether he would have an appetite to sign a top reliever who may command something like a three-year deal or more, Stearns said, “I think that has to be a pretty unique case for us to go to those lengths. Frankly, we were involved in some of those discussions last year and it just didn’t pan out. So it wouldn’t shock me if we were involved in those discussions again this year.”
Here are a few quick notes on some Mets prospects and minor-league players.
• Ronny Mauricio made progress with his recovery from knee surgery, Stearns said, and is expected to be healthy for spring training. Mauricio has not started baseball activities. He had surgery last winter.
Stearns, when asked why Mauricio’s recovery has gone slower than expected, said: “I don’t have a great answer to that; it just has been. Sort of at every step of this rehab process, it’s just gone a little bit slower, taken a little bit longer. We’ve had a little bit more inflammation in the knee than we would have liked at various points, which has caused us to back off, get the inflammation under control, and then restart the process. So it’s very difficult for me to say exactly why, other than some people’s bodies just recover differently from significant surgeries.”
• Brett Baty impressed Stearns and other club officials with how quickly he picked up second base while in Triple A. Stearns wouldn’t close the door on Baty, mostly a third baseman, seeing action in the outfield, an area he dabbled in during previous minor-league seasons.
• Jett Williams — who missed most of the year with a wrist injury but finished with six games at Triple A before getting more time in the Arizona Fall League — has the ability to play shortstop, second base and center field at a high level, Stearns said. Roster need will dictate where Williams ends up. He will need more time in the minor leagues before he is prominently part of the roster discussion.
• Jonathan Pintaro, a 27-year-old right-hander whom the Mets picked up from independent ball, is on the Mets’ radar as a potential contributor at some point down the road in 2025. He moved from High-A Brooklyn to Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Syracuse over three months, exceeding expectations. From there, the Mets placed him in the Arizona Fall League. He impressed some scouts before walking off the field with an athletic trainer in his last outing because of a shoulder issue. However, a subsequent MRI came back clean.
(Photo of Juan Soto from Sept. 20: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
