Congratulations to the New York Mets, who signed Juan Soto to a record-breaking deal that could be worth more than $800 million over 15 years.
And congratulations to Steve Cohen, who now has more pressure on him AFTER landing Soto?
“I’ve tried to win a pennant in December at the Winter Meetings, even in Dallas specifically in 2011, and it turns out you actually have to play the games. There's a lot of examples of teams who have the best player in baseball who don't win, like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout when they were with the Angels,” Samson said. “The reason the Dodgers were able to win the World Series is they had depth and unexpected production from all sorts of places on the field, and then they had an unbelievable addition of Walker Buehler post-injury, who pitched fantastically for them during the playoffs and World Series. There’s so much that has to be done, but if you’re Steve Cohen, you can't stop at just Soto and say, oh, Clay Holmes will anchor our rotation. It really doesn't work that way; you need a front-line starter, and you could say it's Senga, but boy, you better hope there's no more injuries, which is hard to count on. So, I think depth is required.”
That 2011 spree Samson refers to is the one that saw him spend nearly $200 million on closer Heath Bell, shortstop Jose Reyes, and left-hander Mark Buehrle, and almost get Albert Pujols – and still, that 2012 Marlins team went 69-93 in what ended up as Ozzie Guillen’s lone season as manager.
So, yeah, the Mets need more, although Samson doesn’t blame Soto for taking the proverbial bag.
“I definitely wasn't surprised; he had been telling us he was going to do this since he was 19 years old. Basically, when you hire Scott Boras, this is your plan, you are gonna get to free agency,” Samson told the Junkies Tuesday. “And when he got to free agency and took the highest bid? That seems like the normal thing to do in free agency, and I wasn't surprised at all that Stevie Cohen couldn't let him go; he had his eye on Soto as the answer to his five-year plan prayers, and this is a player who he thinks is gonna help him.”
Oh yeah, Scott Boras, who ‘isn’t gonna take an extra call if he doesn’t think your team is at least in the neighborhood,’ and flustered Samson on several occasions.
“I've been on the phone with him many, many times and in the same room negotiating with him, and the phone one is an easy one; yu just put the phone down and then go about your day because he just talks, he doesn't even leave room for anyone to say a word,” Samson said. “In person, you just pretend to read the book they prepared on how great the player is. He prepares these big books, like a treatise about why this player is the player of your dreams and will get you over the hump and your octogenarian owner will finally get his ring, that sort of conversation. So he really plays to the owner's emotions, but you just have to know that he's putting on a show for his clients and for the media, and GMs and presidents really ignore it, don't get intimidated by it or pay attention to it. The true negotiation is with yourself and your owner, when you look at your team and you put your team together and you think about where your payroll can be and where it will be in the future with a contract that you'd be signing today. That's where a majority of the time gets spent, actually.”
Take a listen to Samson’s entire segment above about the Soto deal, Boras’ influence, and more!