The Juan Soto Sweepstakes Officially Starts This Week And It Would Be A Tragedy If He Left New York City
The Juan Soto sweepstakes officially starts this week as he begins meetings. With that, I want to go on record and say the Mets are my #1 due to two essential factors: Steve Cohen's unlimited money and Francisco Lindor's influence.
I should also go on record though and admit that I don't know shit. So take that with a grain of salt.
salty shit
At this point, it's much more certain that Juan Soto is going to get at least $50,000,000 a year, which comes to about $70,000 per plate appearance, $350,000 a game and $1M for a 3 game series. My dad just just saying how much people complained about the '67 Cardinals spending $1M+ on the entire team. 57 years later certainly presents a different landscape.
He's so deserving for so many reasons. Most important would be his consistency. You're getting basically the closest thing to a guarantee since Barry Bonds was juiced out of his skull.
The 2nd most important thing would be his postseason success. It's obvious that he's better in pressure situations, which is largely due to his focus. Don't make me play sports psychologist too hard here but his skillset and simplicity allows him to dial-in harder than the opposition. Which is such a cliche and candy ass thing to say but it's the truth and supported by a .927 October career OPS with a litany of clutch moments. And that's obviously a big deal because you're not paying for Juan Soto without having considerable October-expectations.
So #1 is the fact he's predictably awesome and #2 is that he's proven to be just as good at the most important time.
After that, I don't really know what else matters in signing a free agent. How can you can be you so good at those two things and then expect me to care that you're a good influence for younger prospects? Or that you can talk ball in the dugout and pick up the check at dinner? That gets talked about a lot by local media any time they want to see an owner get a big free agent. You've never heard a louder echo chamber when it came to the Cubs and Jon Lester.
You're also getting a pitching coach
At $150,000,000 you don't need to be a pitching coach. And at whatever Juan Soto is about to get, I would hope it comes devoid of the expectation that he'll mentor somebody like Jeff McNeil to more opposite field power. Or something like that.
Instead, I think it's more important to consider the least demanding environment where his personality can flourish. That's the extent of softball factors I'm willing to weigh and they both align with the Mets primarily. I'm sure there's room to debate this passionately but I'm going with my intuition. Just seems like an already perfect fit and don't forget that Manfred is a huge Mets fan. Conspiracy included, that has to mean something to somebody.
I don't need to take it that far to make the Mets my #1.
But again: I don't know shit. Many experts say the Yankees are a slam dunk to resign him which feels like a safe bet based on the fact that the Yankees have basically never, ever lost out on one of these situations in my life. Like, ever.
So wouldn't it be stupid for me to assume they start losing out now?
Yeah you're a fucking moron Carl
That's what I'm saying. It seems too obvious that he stays in New York.
And maybe from a broader standpoint, it's easier to just say that he should play in New York. He needs a maximum amount of eyeballs on him at all times because he's simply that good. Especially at a time when the general public so easily moans and complains that baseball doesn't market superstars enough. If that's truly the case then he shouldn't be allowed to meet with other teams. As much as I hate to admit it, that's best case scenario for baseball.
Unless of course he likes day games. Then I got good news:
Jonathan Daniel. Getty Images.