FILE - New York Yankees' Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning in Game 2 of the baseball World Series, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Juan Soto is starting to drop teams from negotiations ahead of baseball’s winter meetings next week.
Likely to approach or set a record contract, the free agent slugger has met with the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.
“When you’re going through these things, he’s just got a lot of information to meld through,” agent Scott Boras said Tuesday after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ news conference to introduce Blake Snell, another of his clients. “We’ve had meetings with a number of franchises. He’s begun the process of eliminating teams and doing things and so he’s — Juan is a very methodical thinker. So we’ll see. But I don’t think anything is imminent in the near future.”
Soto is the top player available among this year’s free agents. A four-time All-Star, he finished third in AL MVP voting after hitting .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks for the Yankees. He has a .285 career batting average with 201 homers, 592 RBIs and 769 walks over seven major league seasons.
Soto turned down a $440 million, 15-year offer from Washington in 2022, prompting the Nationals to trade him to San Diego, which then dealt him to the Yankees last December. Soto then combined with Aaron Judge to lead New York to the World Series, where the Yankees lost to the Dodgers.
Boras rejected those who say high-spending teams such as the Yankees and Dodgers are buying championships.
“I would say that, as George Steinbrenner said, whatever you do to compete, the fact that I can compete in a different way than others, so be it,” Boras said, referring to the late Yankees owner. “I don’t think that has anything to do with the number of trophies that hang over your stadium. I don’t think fans remember that.”
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