Juan Soto starting to eliminate teams from negotiations, agent Scott Boras says

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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Source: Superstar Juan Soto nearing decision on free agency

LOS ANGELES — Juan Soto’s much-hyped free agency is nearing its final stages, with a source familiar with the process opening the possibility that the star outfielder could pick his destination by the end of this week — before the start of the annual winter meetings.

The industry’s agents and executives will descend upon Dallas this Sunday. Soto is widely expected to sign a record-breaking contract before they depart the following Thursday and could do so before they even arrive, an industry source told ESPN on Tuesday.

Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, declined to offer a definitive timetable.

“When you go through these things, you just have a lot of information to meld through,” Boras said of Soto while attending Blake Snell’s introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. “We’ve had meetings with a number of franchises. He’s begun the process of eliminating teams and doing things. Juan is a very methodical thinker, so we’ll see. I don’t think anything is imminent in the near future.”

The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are the five known candidates for Soto, whose deal is expected to exceed $600 million and could span 15 years to push the value to unprecedented levels. Shohei Ohtani secured the largest guarantee in baseball history with the 10-year, $700 million deal he signed with the Dodgers last offseason. But more than 95% of Ohtani’s contract is deferred, bringing the present-day value down to $460 million for luxury tax purposes.