Three Yankees takeaways after the Winter Meetings and the loss of Juan Soto

The Yankees entered this past week’s winter meetings in Dallas expecting to hear, one way or the other, news regarding their top winter priority – retaining star outfielder Juan Soto.

Soto bolted to Queens for the largest sports contract ever awarded a North American professional athlete, a 15-year deal with the Mets worth $765 million. The Yankees received word of that Sunday night, on the eve of the meetings, officially sending their offseason in a different direction, which quickly began to take shape.

Here are three Yankees takeaways from this year’s winter meetings:

1. The Yankees were hardly devastated by Juan Soto joining the Mets.

Much has been written about this, including here, since Soto spurned the Yankees' 16-year, $760 million offer in favor of the Mets. . But that has nothing to do with any kind of dismissal of the impact of losing the caliber of player Soto is. But with so many other roster needs to fill – the Yankees, even if Soto returned, were still in the market for bullpen help, a first baseman, a third baseman and a leftfielder – they would have been financially hamstrung in plugging those holes by signing Soto to that kind of deal. Though all of that $760 million isn’t going to be dispersed to address those needs, the Yankees have far more flexibility to do so. The first domino to fall in that regard was the signing of lefthander Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract, making an already strong rotation stronger. The second came Friday afternoon as the club was finalizing a deal to import stud reliever Devin Williams from the Brewers.

2. The Max Fried addition gives the Yankees even more options to utilize on the trade market . . .

. . . Which they used in a hurry. The Yankees weren’t in need – using the traditional definition of “need” compared to the rest of roster – of a starter but adding a front-line pitcher to slot in behind ace Gerrit Cole, and a lefthander no less, gives the club a fearsome one-two punch at the top of the rotation. As starters go, the Yankees now have Cole, Fried, Carlos Rodon, AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman. Nestor Cortes was in that group, but he was used as part of the deal that netted Williams. It is still possible, with so many teams looking for starters, that the Yankees flip valued assets Gil or Schmidt if the right mega-deal to address one of their positional needs presents itself.

3. Soto will not be easily replaced.

No one inside the Yankees organization is under the delusion any one player is going to make up for the loss of Soto, often described as a “unicorn” at the plate. He is that rare player who can hit for power and average and gives opposing pitchers fits because he seldom gives away a pitch, let alone an at-bat, with what is considered the best strike zone discipline in the game. The Yankees, depending on how the rest of the winter plays out, may well have a better offense than they did in 2024, but the devastating duo that was Soto and Aaron Judge hitting 2-3 in the order? That, too, was a unicorn.