Yankees' Hal Steinbrenner has 'no idea' if Juan Soto will sign with team, but says their meeting was 'very honest'
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, left, and outfielder Juan Soto. Credit: AP / Corey Sipkin; Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara
Two days after he had what he termed “a very honest” meeting with Juan Soto, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner on Wednesday said he had “no idea” if the team will be able to re-sign the free-agent superstar.
“All I know is he’s earned this,” Steinbrenner said in Manhattan at the baseball owners meetings at MLB headquarters, “and he’s going to go through the process . . . We’ll be in the mix. I’ll leave it at that.”
What Soto has earned is the right to peddle his considerable talents to any team that is willing to pay what could be a $600 million-plus contract. The 26-year-old outfielder is in the prime of his career, and in his only season in pinstripes helped the Yankees get to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
Soto had a great time in the Bronx and the Yankees and their fans loved having him. But, as Soto said quite clearly after the Yankees’ five-game loss to the Dodgers in the World Series, having hosted Soto for a season gives the Yankees no special edge when it comes to his next contract.
“I don't know what teams will want to come after me, but I'll be open to this and every single team,” Soto said. “I don't have any doors closed or anything like that. I'm going to be available to all 30 teams.”
Soto is known to have met with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays and may also take a meeting with the Phillies.
The Mets under Steve Cohen — baseball’s richest owner — are seen as the best bet to land Soto if he doesn’t return to the Yankees.
Steinbrenner said he spoke to Cohen for “about 10 minutes” at these meetings on Tuesday, but not about Soto.
“We talked about how much it stings to lose a World Series,” Steinbrenner said.
Would it hurt more to lose Soto to the Mets?
“No,” Steinbrenner said. “As I said, we’re going to be in the mix for Soto. If it doesn’t work out, it’s going to hurt a little bit no matter where he goes.”
Cohen, on his way in to the meetings on Wednesday morning, did not comment.
Steinbrenner knows Yankees fans will be disappointed if Soto signs elsewhere (and apoplectic if he signs with the Mets). So Steinbrenner is going to give it the ol’ college try.
“We listen to our fans,” Steinbrenner said. “Our fans really enjoyed having him in New York. He’s definitely a significant part of why we got to the World Series. I’ve got ears. I know what’s expected of me. It’s been a priority. Wouldn’t have gone out to the West Coast if it wasn’t."
Steinbrenner said the meeting, which took place in California under the auspices of Soto’s agent Scott Boras, also included Yankees executives Randy Levine, Brian Cashman and Omar Minaya and manager Aaron Boone.
Soto had been a Yankee since they landed him in December in a trade with the Padres. So it’s unclear what new information they could have given him. Steinbrenner said Soto asked about the Yankees’ player development system.
“I think we had a good meeting,” Steinbrenner said. “I'm not going to get into it, but we had a good meeting. It was a very honest back-and-forth dialogue, a couple hours long. So I think he learned a lot about the organization spending a year here, obviously, and I think he enjoyed his time here. We'll see.”
Asked if he thinks Soto will simply go to the highest bidder, Steinbrenner said: “Can't really answer that. I don't really have an opinion on that. I mean, I just don't know. All I can tell you is I do believe he enjoyed his time here. He’s close with Aaron Judge, he's close with Aaron Boone. So we'll see, but in the end, he needs to do what's best for him and his family.”
As for Boone, who goes into 2025 as a potential lame duck after the Yankees exercised his contract option but did not negotiate an extension, Steinbrenner sounded optimistic that the sides would be discussing one soon.
“Step one was to just exercise the option,” he said. “And then we've been doing eight million things since . . . So I'm going to have discussions with Cashman in the very near future. There’s no huge rush to it, but I will have those discussions as to what we should do next.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
