The latest on the Blue Jays pursuit of Juan Soto.
The Juan Soto bidding war continues and it is believed that the 26 year old superstar will reach a decision on Monday at the 2024 Winter Meetings in Dallas Texas.
ESPN's Buster Olney suggests that Toronto very aggressive this off season and that ''the Blue Jays are going to do something big''.
Agent Scott Boras said that Soto has begun to narrow the field, though he didn't specify a timetable for his decision.
Most reports indicate he's likely to sign by the end of the Winter Meetings, perhaps as soon as this weekend.
Jon Heyman also suggested that the New York Mets, Yankees and the Boston Redsox are all near that mark as well.
Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported last night that the Red Sox were hoping for a final meeting with Juan Soto's camp to get the outfielder to name a price at which he'd put pen to paper. It's not clear if Soto would grant any team that sit-down.
Shohei Ohtani's deal was initially reported as a 10-year, $700MM contract last year.
The extreme nature of the deferrals in the Ohtani deal, which were reported a few days after he announced he was signing with the Dodgers, dramatically reduced the net present value.
MLB valued the contract around $461MM for luxury tax purposes.
That's still an all-time record.
Soto was unquestionably going to beat $461MM and widely expected to go well beyond $500MM
Speaking in general terms earlier this week with Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins described deferrals as a byproduct of «more teams, agents and players being open to different solutions.»
Then, when asked if deferred contracts made sense for the club's parent company, Atkins said «I can tell you this, the Blue Jays and the Rogers corporation are open to solutions and open to thinking about things creatively.»
The reason why these figures are so astronomical is because Soto's free agency is a generational occurrence.
It almost never happens that a player this young (26) and this accomplished hits the free agent market.
Soto is already a four-time All-star, a batting champion and a World Series champion, winning with the 2019 Washington Nationals.
The winter meetings begin on Monday and Soto is expected to have a decision during these meetings.
Hopefully Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins can get it done along with an extension of Blue Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr..
If they can't extend Vlad Jr this season surely this will be the end of the Shapiro Atkins tenure in Toronto.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 7 | 288 ANSWERS The latest on the Blue Jays pursuit of Juan Soto. Who will land Juan Soto? | ||
| Toronto Blue Jays | 65 | 22.6 % |
| New York Mets | 168 | 58.3 % |
| New York Yankees | 42 | 14.6 % |
| Boston Red Sox | 13 | 4.5 % |
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