C-Mac: Idea of spreading Juan Soto's salary around is far-sighted approach to current need
Chris McMonigle believes the Yankees should go all in for Juan Soto, for obvious reasons – but here’s the other thing about it: the idea of a ‘Plan B’ where you spread around his AAV to multiple other players to fill holes sounds good, but isn’t the right idea.
It started with Chris talking about how the A’s signed Luis Severino to their franchise’s largest guaranteed contract ever, and how that affects both the Yankees’ and Mets’ plans – the latter because David Stearns doesn’t believe in paying starters long-term, and the former because it makes perhaps some of their back-end starters more valuable.
But after a call about which teams are bidding on Juan Soto just for the publicity, and how the Yankees won’t just go in and say ‘here’s an offer’ and wait for others to try to match it, Chris wondered if the Yankees truly have been told they’ll get a chance to match any final offers – and what happens if either that doesn’t, or they choose not to?
“They have to go out there and put their best foot forward and read the tea leaves. Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner have to believe what Scott Boras is telling them, understand where other teams are, and make a competitive or winning offer,” Chris said. “They're not gonna just sit back, not do anything, kick their feet up, and say, ‘Scotty come back to us when you have something.’ That’s not how it works!”
And here’s the thing about that: we really have no idea what Soto’s deal is going to look like, or even maybe a ballpark – and we don’t know how it’s going to affect the rest of free agency, either, so it’s not as simple as saying, ‘let’s buy these x parts for y million instead of one Soto.’
“The Yankees can't just wait and hope Juan Soto wants to be a Yankee, and has Scott Boras come back to them with whatever the offer is – they have to be out there making the offer, and the offer has to be 14 or 15 years and over Ohtani’s number in real salary, which is $43 million a year,” Chris said. “They have to be there, or they’re not involved, and you have to go out there and give him the big offer and show him you’re willing to go to those levels.”
Chris is on record for 15 years, $705 million, which is $47 million for year, and even 15/675 is the bare minimum – and again, it’s not just taking that $45-$47 million a year and spreading it around, because it’s not a zero-sum game.
“Look at the money Severino just made, almost $24 million a year for a guy who has hardly pitched in the last five years!” Chris said. “What do you think Burnes or Max Fried will get? So why can’t we pay Juan Soto $50 million? Oh, spread it around? I can get Burnes and MAYBE Christian Walker – and probably not even. Forget the 700 total, I don’t care about the total money, it’s about the money right now up against the luxury tax. You can’t think like that, and if it takes $50 million a year for Juan Soto, explain to me where that $50 million elsewhere is going to go to make the Yankees better when Luis Severino just made half of that himself? You’re not spreading that money around and getting better!”
