SOTO READY TO LET BORAS “DO HIS THING”, EVEN HOW HE LASTLY SAYS IT

It’s no secret that Juan Soto will be the top free agent this winter. Hal Steinbrenner had hoped Soto would sign a midseason extension, but that’s not happening. The baseball world knew it, but now it’s coming straight from Soto’s mouth so Hal can get rid of his delusions.

It’s that time of year. The Subway Series always leads to sensational Yankees vs. Mets gossip and John Heyman shared HERE in the New York Post that the Mets could be the biggest threat to the Yankees signing Soto this winter. We all know Steve Cohen has a big piggy bank and will probably spend more of it than Hal, but Soto responded: “We’ll see. We’ll find out in the offseason. I’ll let (officer Scott Boras) do his thing. We’ll see.”

And we will certainly see that. Soto clearly has a lot of faith in Boras, but does he have a lot of faith? Serious question. You can say many things about Boras, such as that he is “bad for baseball”. He does get paid a pretty penny for his clients, which means we end up paying more money, but historically he’s been great at his job. What matters is that he makes the most money for his clients, and he has done just that…

Except he had an epic fall from grace last winter. Take a look at the MLBtraderumors.com projected for five of its clients and compare it to what they signed up for:

Cody Bellinger: PROJECTION 12 years, $264 million ACTUAL: 3 years, $80 million
Blake Snell: PROJECTED 7 years, $200 million REAL: 2 years, $60 million
Jordan Montgomery: PROJECTION 6 years, $150 million ACTUAL: 1 year, $25 million
Matt Chapman: PLANNED 6 years, $150 million ACTUAL: 3 years, $54 million
JD Martinez: PROJECTION 2 years, $40 million ACTUAL: 1 year, $12 million
TOTAL PROJECTED: $804 million ACTUAL: $231 million

All five of these players had impressive seasons in 2023. Bellinger won a Silver Slugger. Snell won his second Cy Young Award. Montgomery got a World Series ring. Chapman won a Gold Glove. Martinez was an All-Star. All these guys expected a bigger payday. It didn’t happen.

The market didn’t value these guys the same way it did Boras. He tried to sell it in a tough financial market, but that didn’t happen. Diamond Sports Group has filed for bankruptcy and provides television broadcasts for nearly half of all MLB, NBA and NHL games. This left nearly half of all MLB teams facing uncertainty about possible local TV coverage in the future. One of these teams was the Rangers, who wanted to bring back Montgomery but couldn’t afford to.

So Boras didn’t have the healthiest market to sell his customers to. Ultimately, Montgomery left Boras for new agents, so it’s not a great look for Boras. Now Soto entrusts Boras “doing his thing” and get him the biggest and best deal? That’s a scary gamble.

Soto has turned down no fewer than seven contract extensions in the past five years. He believes Boras will get him his payday, but is he foolish to do so? Will Boras misread the market again? It can happen.

I don’t know, Soto, not Boras “doing his thing” for his clients last year. Things may turn out differently than you think.

–Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Editor-in-Chief