A pair of National League East division foes have made their stances clear on the pursuit of Juan Soto.
The Philadelphia Phillies are out of the race to sign him, reportedly after never showing a major interest despite many in the sport seeing the fit.
On the flipside, the New York Mets have emerged as the clear frontrunners to sign Soto, per USA Today.
The reason behind the confidence in an inter-borough move for Soto is Mets’ owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to not be outbid for Soto.
The three other teams believed to be in the Soto sweepstakes, the incumbent New York Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays, and Boston Red Sox, all have minor red flags the Mets do not.
Not among the teams chasing Soto includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, who just defeated Soto and the Yankees in the World Series.
Soto has not commented publicly since the Game 5 loss in the World Series that handed the championship to Los Angeles.
After the game, he spoke about how great his time was in New York and how he was also open to every possibility for his future.
Soto’s contract could be up to a dozen years and worth more than $600million, similar to the mega deal signed by Dodgers phenom Shohei Ohtani last offseason.
The Yankees are desperate to retain Soto but reportedly have a cap on how much they can spend to keep No 22 in pinstripes.
Toronto is viewed as a dark horse in the sweepstakes, much as it was a year ago for Ohtani, because of the unknown money it would spend to bring Soto to Canada.
New contracts for already-signed stars Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette appear to be a road bump in Soto becoming a Blue Jay.
The Red Sox have plenty of needs and have the money to spend. They also have not had a huge willingness to spend it in recent years.
If this truly is the foursome left in the Soto sweepstakes, he will either remain a Yankee or pack up to a team they share a division or city with.
