Juan Soto, the courting season
has begun.
This is according to the New
York Post and mike Puma one.
So again is out there.
And according to Puma Mets owner
Steve Cohen plans to travel next
week to meet with SOTO and his
agent scott for and Boris
planned of co plans to travel to
Southern California next week.
According to industry sources,
of course, now this will, you
know, happen with many different
teams.
But how about this, jake?
Because I looked at the fan
graphs, crowdsourcing just to
see, hey, what will he get paid
instead of making a number up?
What do the people, the informed
readers of fan graphs think 13
years, 585 million.
So that's 45 million per for 13
years.
That's the type of we're looking
at here.
The season splits.
He had a magnificent regular
season 4, 19 on base 5, 69
slugging.
The weighted runs created plus
is 180 which was second only to
his teammate, aaron Judge.
But the postseason, it
correlated his game correlates
to the postseason, especially at
the plate.
It does.
And this is why he's going to
command such a presence.
We saw the at bat that he had
late in the postseason in the
Cleveland Series.
This guy is on a different level
and he's ready for the moment.
The length of this contract
scares me because of what we've
just seen in long term
commitments and the way we know
the back end is gonna work out,
this is what I'll say.
He's 26 years old.
We love that number, but he's
got six full seasons at the
major league level of wear and
tear on that body.
By the time you're talking about
a decade, plus, what are you
getting on the defensive side of
the ball?
I mean, many would argue right
now.
He's a better certed, uh suited
DH.
So it scares me but he's as good
of a hitter as we've probably
seen in the last decade or so.
Here's a, here's a outs above
average and that's the statcast
defensive metric and I didn't
even tell the whole story but in
2022 negative 16, 1st percentile
, that's bad.
You want to be 99 and 100
negative nine.
He was negative five this year.
Look, he worked hard this year
and yet I would, I would say
this, jake, we saw the good, the
bad and the ugly of Juan Soto in
the playoffs.
His at bats are the very best in
the game.
His plate discipline.
If you're gonna, he'll take
pitches, he'll grind out at
bats.
He will walk, he will not get
out of the strike zone, but he
could, he'll not strike out,
he'll walk, he'll hit a single
and if you'll leave it up, he'll
hit a bomb.
However, defensively, same story
, we saw balls going out into
right field, especially in, at
Dodger Stadium that he just did
not play well, which would just
lead to one little measly base
but would lead to a run and lead
to a Dodger victory.
So all of this and age 25 season
, I wonder what the effect on
the market will be given that.
Ok, he hits better than
Mookie Betts, but he's not
Mookie Betts out there and we're
talking about an injury or so
away in a couple of years and
this guy is not able to be on
the field if he sustains any
kind of leg injury or something
that, I mean, we've seen what
happened to Stanton and I'm not
wishing saying that's gonna
happen, but injuries do happen,
especially when you're talking
about a decade on him in four
years into a 13 year deal.
We're talking to him a decade in
, he's not gonna be the same guy
moving around.
And so that scares me long term
if we've got a DH for eight plus
or so years on our roster, if
not making a decision like we
need to do in moving him on.
The one thing I'll say too about
is I wish that he would have
more bats in the regular season
, not geared towards the numbers
and to like that off or
Cleveland at bat that we're
referencing.
He sometimes I think he's the
best player and the best hitter
on the Yankees team.
We saw that in the postseason
sometimes as a starting pitcher.
I think he's too passive.
I think he's looking to walk in
that at bat.
He was not looking to walk, he
swung at balls in that at bat,
not when he is up there in
dangerous and looking to do
damage 45 times a game, but he
did do damage this year.
No, he did, but there's plenty
of times where he's up there
working in at bat and I think
that to me as a starting pitcher
against him, you're doing me a
favor if you're taken as
dangerous of a hitter and
putting him in a defensive mode
trying to, to work his own base
percentage in certain certs in
the game at bats are so good
though, as good as anybody in
base.
So that baserunning runs, he was
almost negative four.
So again, he's not running, he's
not fielding, but boy, he can
hit and he can hit in the
playoffs.
Here's what's happening with the
Mets.
If you're looking at Steve Cohen
and how much money can you pay
one player again?
He's coming into his age 26
seasons just as Bryce Harper
Manny Machado, were they got
$300 million deals the Mets
payroll is going to go for about
332 million.
This is all dead Mets money at
the top.
Verlander and Scherzer.
But now Pete Alonso, by the way
, those last three guys are
going to replace those innings.
They know that, you know, David
Stearns, Steve Cohen, the owner
will have to get after that, but
they, to their, you know, to
their spending capital, their
payroll projected right now,
jake 100 and 77 million, they
clearly will get up to 300
million.
So if they want to have a high a
av average annual value for SOTO
, they can absolutely do it.
And you put SOTO and Lyor in a
lineup with Lyor doing what he
did, we watch what SOTO just
did.
They're gonna be formidable when
you talk about the other pieces
, Vientos and some of their
young players and I think