Sal starting to worry Mets are being 'played' by Juan Soto
Sal Licata still believes Juan Soto will sign with the Mets, but as the free agent's sweepstakes near an end, he is worried Steve Cohen and company are finding themselves in a similar spot that they were with Yoshinobu Yamamoto last winter.
"I'm starting to get a little bit of a sense that the Mets are being played here," Sal said. "They talked the Mets up as the favorite a couple weeks ago, now the Red Sox are gonna be the favorite, and to me, that was a clear alarm or signal that Juan Soto prefers to be with the Yankees."
As reports have hyped up the Mets and Red Sox - the Yankees' two biggest rivals - and now MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reports that the Yanks will have the chance to get the "final crack" at Soto before he makes his decision, Sal wonders if Soto is trying to finesse a big payday out of the Yankees, the team he wants to sign with in the end.
If that's true, Sal believes there is a way for the Mets to still win out, and that would include Steve Cohen flexing his financial might and blowing away Soto with a final, take-it-or-leave-it offer, and to put him on the spot.
"The only way to combat that…Steve Cohen needs to - today, like now - he needs to reach out to Boras and Soto and say 'Here is my best and final offer, you have an hour to sign it,'" Sal said. "Act like a king. Put the offer out there. Best and final. Whatever it is. It might need to be 700, 725, 750…but put it out there now.
"Enough is enough. The Mets cannot get played again by Juan Soto."
