Yankees GM Brian Cashman aware of deep-pocketed Mets owner Steve Cohen in Juan Soto sweepstakes

SAN ANTONIO – How afraid are the Yankees of the deep pockets belonging to Mets owner Steve Cohen when it comes to his club’s interest in free agent Juan Soto?

Not any more so than they are of any other club seriously involved in the sweepstakes for the All-Star outfielder – and there will be more than just the Yankees and Mets making a pitch for the cream of this winter’s free agent crop – Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Tuesday.

“It’s hard to say,” Cashman said of the “threat” he felt the Mets posed. “They want to win, they’re in a large market, with us, they had a taste of success this year and they want to move the needle even more forward. And the best way to do that is to import quality players to what you already have. And that’s what we, they, and anybody interested in winning and being the last team standing, that’s what it’s all about is trying to find great players and add [them] to your mix.”

Cashman offered mostly word salad when asked specifically about the potential involvement of Cohen - the wealthiest owner in Major League Baseball with a net worth of $21.3 billion, according to Forbes – who in his short time owning the team he grew up rooting for has shown he’s not afraid to spend.

And spend big.

“That’s just the nature of the beast. And big-market owners aren’t the only ones signing players to big deals,” Cashman said to the Cohen question. “You’ve seen the San Diego Padres, they’ve imported a lot of big-time players with big-time contracts that they’ve out-competed other teams of interest for. So it comes in various forms in various cities at various times. So the market on a year-in and year-out basis is strong from all different aspects of the baseball universe. We do our best to compete with whomever on a year-in, year-out basis.”

Soto, already a four-time All-Star who turned just 26 on Oct. 25, is represented by Scott Boras, who is the agent for many of the sport’s biggest stars, his stable including, among others, Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper and Pete Alonso (the latter is also part of a big-name free agent class this winter).

Cashman said re-upping Soto, whom the Yankees traded for last winter in a blockbuster deal with the Padres, was discussed in-season with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner and Boras on a cursory level.

But all involved knew Soto, who is expected to land a package in the range of $500 to $600 million, and perhaps surpassing the latter figure, would be testing the free agent market as pretty much every star player Boras represents does.

It is not yet clear – and Cashman said he hasn’t talked budget yet with Steinbrenner – how high the owner is willing to go to retain Soto.

“Signing him, no matter who you are, is going to be difficult because he’s a generational type talent,” Cashman said.

Soto throughout the year answered all questions about his impending free agency similarly, those answers distilled to this: we’ll see what happens.

Which the outfielder reiterated multiple times after the Yankees’ season ended with a Game 5 loss to the Dodgers in the World Series.

“I feel like every team has the same opportunity when I’m going to free agency,” Soto said. “I don’t want to say anybody has any advantage, because at the end of the day, we’re going to look at what they have and how much they want me.”

The Yankees have multiple areas that need to be addressed this offseason, including in the infield, bullpen and, depending what happens with Soto, the outfield. Cashman, though the Yankees have six starters, also didn’t rule out pursuing starting pitching.

But the GM acknowledged with Soto being a priority, some of that could be in a holding pattern.

“If you have an interest in a player, you have to give them an honest time frame to allow them to work through their decision that they’ve earned to get there [free agency],” Cashman said. “These great players are worth waiting on, to some degree. But I also understand that you don’t want to put yourself in a bad spot that you wait so long and all the other alternatives come off the board, and now you can’t do anything. You can’t be there, either. We’ll have to do our best with it.”