Boston’s taxing pursuit of Juan Soto is over. (Mets)

joe dokes

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There is also widespread skepticism that Soto would go to the Blue Jays — but a source pushed back on that, saying that if a team is involved in the final bidding, Soto is willing to play there. That tracks with the above point that Team Soto has no need to inflate the perception of his market by adding teams that aren’t legitimately in it.
Ahh, so mystery teams need not apply?
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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All of this intrigue about Soto, even if he may not be the wisest allocation of resources given the team's pitching needs, has me more excited than I have been about any off-season in a long time.
 
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luckiestman

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Toronto is even sillier than Boston. Maybe he is a huge Drake fan and Papi will have to rap battle Drake for him.
 

mauidano

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As someone who has lived for over 10 years in both places, I can tell you that there is very little difference in reality between New Yorkers and Bostonians. The biggest difference is that NYers will generally leave you alone. For an insanely wealthy young person, NY certainly has more to offer in terms of housing, entertainment, restaurants, dating prospects, etc. You can be anonymous there much more easily than you can in Boston. If I were making the decision between the two places, as someone who greatly values anonymity, I would choose NY. If you want to be a folk hero, recognized and feted everywhere, then you choose Boston, all else being held equal.

In my experience, Bostonians are harder nuts to crack than NYers. But once you crack that nut, they offer much deeper and authentic friendships and relationships. NYers are more open to new things and people, but also much more superficial in a lot of ways (including, as we all know, their sports fandom). Having lived in NYC on 9/11 and Boston during the Marathon bombing, both communities are capable of fostering a sense of love and belonging. And in both places, that sense wore off in a few weeks or months when the reality of an everyday existence requiring intense competition returned.

Entitled obnoxious Yankee fans are closely rivaled (but not outnumbered) by obnoxious entitled Pats fans. The two cities love to draw the contrasts between themselves, but they are much more alike than they care admit. I live in CT now and still love (and hate) both cities in different ways.
Excellent perspective.
 

astrozombie

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I am not totally discounting that Toronto is in play, at least now. Robinson Cano shocked many people by going to the Mariners over returning to the Yankees. I strongly suspect that in Cano's case, his agents told him something like "look, take the money and if you don't like the situation we can always get you traded later". No one really knows where Soto's head is at, but if Toronto offers a crazy amount of money, it is at least a possibility (or that his agent pushes for it).
That said, I still think Yankees 1A, Mets 1B, then the field.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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ked by Manny," if I remember the terms of the trade correctly.

Manny Ramirez and a very young Jon Lester would have
Oh der, thanks for the reminder. I originally had just Papi shown for good reason apparently, but absent-mindedly added Manny.
 

LogansDad

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I am not totally discounting that Toronto is in play, at least now. Robinson Cano shocked many people by going to the Mariners over returning to the Yankees. I strongly suspect that in Cano's case, his agents told him something like "look, take the money and if you don't like the situation we can always get you traded later". No one really knows where Soto's head is at, but if Toronto offers a crazy amount of money, it is at least a possibility (or that his agent pushes for it).
That said, I still think Yankees 1A, Mets 1B, then the field.
He's also good friends with Vlad Jr, isn't he? I definitely wouldn't count out Toronto if "anything other than money" is a factor for Soto... I just don't know what his decision making process is going to come down to.
 

Hank Scorpio

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Waiting for the Red Sox to release some sort of cryptic statement like:

The past few seasons have not gone as we have hoped, so
we would like to say a few words to our loyal fans in order to
shine a little bit of light on what our strategy for next year is
It's very important to us that our fans know where we're coming
from. Our foremost goal is to continue to add to this roster to
provide the best team we can, and to bring another ring to Boston.
Stay tuned!
 

RG33

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My old man just texted me saying the Sox signed Soto. He is 77 and starting to lose it a bit, but he does know a lot of realtors. I’m taking this as a very good omen.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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Headed to Toronto this evening. I will see a friend who is a huge Blue Jays fan who was briefly ecstatic this time last year that Toronto was going to sign Ohtani. It's a timely reminder for me to basically not pay much attention to this thread.
 
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TapeAndPosts

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My old man just texted me saying the Sox signed Soto. He is 77 and starting to lose it a bit, but he does know a lot of realtors. I’m taking this as a very good omen.
Get your Dad a Twitter account and he could have 10K followers by day's end! I mean, assuming he's not already "Thomas Lombardi-Hesser".
 

sezwho

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I think we’re actually at step four now.
Courting phase 1, visiting LA
Courting phase 2, the initial offer.
Courting phase 3, the increased offer.
Courting phase 4…to quote the great Willem Dafoe from JW “Whatever the F this is”
 

LeoCarrillo

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What's the rule/etiquette on a team announcing a signing after it's signed? IOW, let's say the Sox hypothetically have Juan Soto's John Hancock, could they keep it on the QT while shopping for pitchers . . . as not to be bidding for those pitchers against, say, the Mets with their knowing they've got an extra $50M a year to burn now without having landed Soto?

Probably irrelevant, as an agent like Boras would never sit on that info and burn bridges with other teams.
 

E5 Yaz

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What's the rule/etiquette on a team announcing a signing after it's signed? IOW, let's say the Sox hypothetically have Juan Soto's John Hancock, could they keep it on the QT while shopping for pitchers . . . as not to be bidding for those pitchers against, say, the Mets with their knowing they've got an extra $50M a year to burn now without having landed Soto?
Well, Burnes is a Boros client, so he'll know. And the other teams will have been told they're out of the Soto race, and probably find out who won.
So, I don't think your hypothetical could take place
 

Hank Scorpio

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I think it’s safe to say it would leak ASAP, but the way around this is to sign your SP first. There’s nothing stopping the Sox from getting Fried completed first…
Fried's not going to sign before Soto if Soto's lack of decision is causing other teams from holding off on exploring starting pitching.
 

soxhop411

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More from Randy Miller
The Red Sox have emerged as a favorite — maybe THE favorite — to land Yankees free agent Juan Soto, two people with knowledge of the contract negotiations told NJ Advance Media.


The Yankees are still hopeful of re-signing Soto, but they’re now more worried about their AL East rival Red Sox than the crosstown rival Mets, who have the richest owner in Steve Cohen.


The people requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.



One person said that David Ortiz, a Hall of Fame slugger and Red Sox legend, has been trying to convince Soto to sign with Boston by talking up the city, the organization, manager Alex Cora and the farm system, which includes three of the top 10 prospects in the majors in MLB Pipeline’s rankings.



The person with knowledge also told NJ Advance Media that the Red Sox have told Soto that they intend to sign two additional big-money free agents, another hitter and a pitcher. The Red Sox also are among the favorites for a winter trade with the Cardinals for superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado, who is on the block.



It’s believed the Red Sox, Mets and Blue Jays are all in on Soto, with the Yankees and Dodgers also in contention. The 26-year-old outfielder finished third in the 2024 American League MVP vote after hitting .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBI and a .989 OPS in 157 games last season, his first with the Yankees.
https://www.nj.com/yankees/2024/12/yankees-juan-soto-worry-is-growing-over-emerging-threat-and-its-not-the-mets.html
 

E5 Yaz

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What’s Curry saying?
Nothing yet, starts at 630. Meanwhile ...

@Jared_Carrabis
I’ve been on Twitter since the last time the Yankees won a World Series, so it’s been a long time. In all my years on this godforsaken website, I’ve never seen the amount of fake reporting that the Juan Soto sweepstakes has brought out. Not even with Shohei did we see this.
 

koufax37

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All of this intrigue about Soto, even if he may not be the wisest allocation of resources given the team's pitching needs, has me more excited than I have been about any off-season in a long time.
Inigo Montoya would question the use of the word "need" when talking about making a record breaking offer to a generational talent in his prime. Are you referring to 2025 season need? May definitely be true if he is limited to listening to one year offers, but from my best understanding we are looking at the needs of the 2025-2036 Red Sox.

We will see what the contract looks like, but I highly doubt he will be overpaid any of the next ten years whoever gets him. Look at the elite big contract players. Pujols wasn't overpaid 26-35 years old. ARod outperformed his mega deal (before the opt out). Harper's deal despite his injury, Machado's deal, Manny Ramirez, Robinson Cano...there just aren't deals for elite bats buying these ages that are overpays, and neither will Soto. Even the ones that ages poorly, were signed at 31...look at that player 26-35...

Final years and dollars will be higher, and years 11 to 15 could be a burden, but if there is any team in baseball that would not spend 10/500 for the next ten years of Soto, they should fire the executive who told them not to. Not just talking big market...if you are the Royals or the Guardians or the Twins and you aren't trying to jump in to the 12/600 end of the pool, you are running your team wrong.

The good news on that side is that there isn't a lot of Cano to Seattle or ARod to Texas in this, other than maybe the Blue Jays, since the teams that should get him are also the ones who share my views on his value. I think it comes down to us and Uncle Stevie. There is no more consistently valuable asset to allocate resources to than elite 26-35 year old bats, and if we have to spend a few extra dollars in 2038 to get that, I think inflation and wins over the next decade will help us live with those consequences.
 

Hee Sox Choi

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Because this thread is in dire need of a real update, I asked ChatGPT to write a joke in the voice of Mitch Hedberg about the Red Sox signing Juan Soto:

"Juan Soto signed with the Red Sox. That’s huge. They said he’s gonna crush it at Fenway. I’d crush it too if I got paid $500 million. I’d walk up to the plate thinking, ‘Even if I strike out, I can buy everyone here nachos.’ And then I’d still have enough left to buy a yacht... just to store more nachos."
 

cantor44

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Inigo Montoya would question the use of the word "need" when talking about making a record breaking offer to a generational talent in his prime. Are you referring to 2025 season need? May definitely be true if he is limited to listening to one year offers, but from my best understanding we are looking at the needs of the 2025-2036 Red Sox.

We will see what the contract looks like, but I highly doubt he will be overpaid any of the next ten years whoever gets him. Look at the elite big contract players. Pujols wasn't overpaid 26-35 years old. ARod outperformed his mega deal (before the opt out). Harper's deal despite his injury, Machado's deal, Manny Ramirez, Robinson Cano...there just aren't deals for elite bats buying these ages that are overpays, and neither will Soto. Even the ones that ages poorly, were signed at 31...look at that player 26-35...

Final years and dollars will be higher, and years 11 to 15 could be a burden, but if there is any team in baseball that would not spend 10/500 for the next ten years of Soto, they should fire the executive who told them not to. Not just talking big market...if you are the Royals or the Guardians or the Twins and you aren't trying to jump in to the 12/600 end of the pool, you are running your team wrong.

The good news on that side is that there isn't a lot of Cano to Seattle or ARod to Texas in this, other than maybe the Blue Jays, since the teams that should get him are also the ones who share my views on his value. I think it comes down to us and Uncle Stevie. There is no more consistently valuable asset to allocate resources to than elite 26-35 year old bats, and if we have to spend a few extra dollars in 2038 to get that, I think inflation and wins over the next decade will help us live with those consequences.
Sorry not to add anything here, just want to praise this post. Yep.
 

Fishy1

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Nov 10, 2006
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Because this thread is in dire need of a real update, I asked ChatGPT to write a joke in the voice of Mitch Hedberg about the Red Sox signing Juan Soto:

"Juan Soto signed with the Red Sox. That’s huge. They said he’s gonna crush it at Fenway. I’d crush it too if I got paid $500 million. I’d walk up to the plate thinking, ‘Even if I strike out, I can buy everyone here nachos.’ And then I’d still have enough left to buy a yacht... just to store more nachos."
Jesus, this is worse than the fake reporting.
 

Seels

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I think it’s safe to say it would leak ASAP, but the way around this is to sign your SP first. There’s nothing stopping the Sox from getting Fried completed first…
Why does order matter? The Sox should get Fried regardless of what the plans are with Soto