Sal has maintained that the Mets offseason needs to see the team bring in two of the three coveted stars in Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Now, the more he hears from the MLB hot stove, the more he believes that it’s going to be the Yankees who get two of the three, especially after hearing ESPN’s Jeff Passan’s report that the Padres would likely see the Yankees as one of the few teams that could satisfy their need for young pitching talent in a trade for Soto.
“The Yankees plan, it seems…to trade some of the pitchers they have, whether it be [Michael] King, [Clarke] Schmidt, or anybody else, get Soto, and fill one of those voids by getting Yamamoto.
“I think it’s going to happen. I do.”
Sal had said last week that he would be ready to unleash a rant for the ages if the Yankees beat out the Mets for Yamamoto, but to get both Yamamoto and Soto? That would be tough to handle.
“If Yamamoto wants to come to the Yankees, and they’re trading major league starting pitching - that’s what the Padres want - I look at the Yankees like they don’t currently need Yamamoto. They have [Gerrit] Cole, they have [Carlos] Rodon,” Sal said. “But if you’re trading some of that quality younger pitching, then you bring Yamamoto in, you have Cole, Yamamoto, Rodon as a three, and you bring in Soto? Who can argue with that as an offseason?
“The more we talk about it, the more realistic I think it is, and the more it upsets me that it’s going to happen for the Yankees.”
