DALLAS — It was around 10 a.m. Sunday when the New York Yankees presented Scott Boras, Juan Soto’s agent, with their final offer. Hours later, Boras called general manager Brian Cashman to tell him that Soto chose to sign a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets that can reach $805 million over the lifetime of the contract.
The Yankees were as kept in the dark about Soto’s negotiations as the public. Throughout the process, there were moments when the Yankees believed they were in the lead, only to feel that the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets had emerged as frontrunners at various times. But the truth became clear when Boras made the final call Sunday night. Cashman then held a conference call with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine to inform them that Soto was no longer theirs.
The Yankees’ final offer for Soto was 16 years, $760 million. But because of the escalator clause in Soto’s contract that can take his total salary to $805 million, the Yankees were $45 million short. Cashman said he did not know if Soto chose the Mets simply because they were the highest offer or if there were other factors at play, but he felt Steinbrenner did his best to keep Soto a Yankee for the rest of his career.
“I would just say Hal went above and beyond to try to find a way to keep Juan Soto in pinstripes and continue to keep him a part of our mix as we move forward and take our shot,” Cashman said. “There’s a lot of different ways to figure this thing out, and so we’re going to have to figure out a different way without Juan.”
Brian Cashman said he does not regret trading for Juan Soto, even though he’s a Met. He knew the risk of it just being a one-year commitment.
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) December 9, 2024
Cashman said he did not know if Soto would have been a Yankee if they had matched the Mets’ offer. Once the Yankees submitted their final offer, their next communication with Boras was when he told Cashman that he signed with the Mets.
“Certainly disappointed the process took us where it went, but I’ve been doing this a long time,” Cashman said. “At times, things go your way. Other times, they don’t. But the one thing that doesn’t change and doesn’t stop is the challenges are always, ‘All right, what’s next? What’s the next opportunity?’ We have a lot of different areas to fix on this team. We have vacancies from free agency, and we’re exploring trades as well as free agency and comparing that to our internal options that we could promote. So those are decisions we have to make. So whether you pull it down or it doesn’t go your way, you still have to get after it and continue to fight through every option that’s in front of you.”
By the time the Soto sweepstakes ended, Cashman said it was hard to believe that their offer wasn’t enough because “we went above and beyond where our comfort level was.” The Yankees tried engaging Soto and Boras on a possible extension but were told during the season that they were not interested and wanted to test free agency.
Now that he’s a Met, Cashman also said he did not regret making the trade that sent Michael King, Kyle Higashioka, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez to San Diego for Soto. He also believes there wasn’t anything they could have done differently in the past year to make the experience of having Soto any better, other than winning the World Series.
Their championship goal fell short, and their desire to keep Soto long-term also fell short. The Yankees are now left with figuring out a plan on how they’ll move forward.
“Ultimately, we plan on defending our American League title and trying to find a way to win the World Series in the near term, meaning 2025.”
(Photo of Hal Steinbrenner hoisting the ALCS trophy after clinching the pennant on Oct. 19: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
