Juan Soto is officially a free agent, and the Yankees are expected to be among the top candidates to sign the superstar to a record contract, and the team certainly has interest in bringing Soto back on a long-term deal.
As for whether the Yankees will sit down with Soto in person to make their free-agent pitch, Cashman says that will be up to Soto, and whether or not he needs a formal meeting, or if a year in pinstripes in which he hit a career-high 41 home runs behind Aaron Judge and won a pennant was enough of a sales pitch.
“I had a conversation with Scott Boras yesterday, so I know he was gonna have conversations with Juan,” Cashman said, via SNY. “We are standing ready to meet with him if he feels necessary to meet with us, as he understands the landscape of opportunities that now exist for himself.
“We are more than willing to meet as many times as he’s willing to meet, but I think Scott Boras was gonna talk to Juan and get a feel whether he thought it was necessary for us to have as much in-person with us than other clubs because he knows us. We stand ready to do whatever.”
Of course, the big driver of the sales pitch would likely be the price tag, as Soto is expected to earn upwards of $600 million in free agency given his age and level of stardom. Cashman and the Yanks understand the price, but they also had an up-close look at how Soto can impact winning, which makes him a very attractive candidate to invest record money in for the long haul.
“We certainly have interest in retaining him and we'll put our best foot forward there,” Cashman said. “But at the same time, that will either lead to us signing him back or we'll be forced to go in a different direction if we can't. If we can’t there are a lot of other players on this marketplace that can positively impact this roster in a lot of ways. We will be working on every aspect of opportunity and exploring any way possible to put together the best team we possibly can for 2025. Because we want to get back to where we just finished, which was the World Series.”
As for Cashman’s recent talk with Boras, it also included another high-profile client in Pete Alonso, who is now a free agent while the Yankees likely have a need at first base after declining Anthony Rizzo’s club option for 2025.
“Yeah, sure he did,” Cashman said when asked if Alonso’s name came up. “There’s a lot of high-quality players in this marketplace, and certainly Pete did an amazing job with the Mets. I had a brief conversation with Scott. He has a lot of free agents, which is normal, and Pete is one of them. So, yes.”