Soto's free agency looming, but Yanks focused on task at hand
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LOS ANGELES -- The Yankees were deep into their fourth celebration of the past month-plus, having punched their World Series ticket on a chilly evening in Cleveland, and Juan Soto was showing off his fluid dance moves in the center of Progressive Field’s lager-soaked visitors' clubhouse.
Soto’s clutch 10th-inning homer had helped deliver the pennant in one of the season’s finest at-bats, seeing the superstar nod defiantly along with each pitch from Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis. Eyeing his teammate from about a dozen feet away, Giancarlo Stanton said that there was no way these could be Soto’s last games as a Yankee.
“We need him to stay. He’s going to stay,” Stanton said that night. “We need to bring it home, and then we’ll bring him home.”
The Yankees traded for Soto with the intent of increasing their chances of ending their 15-year title drought, and as they stand four victories shy of their 28th championship, the move to import the 26-year-old has paid off handsomely. Soto will become a free agent after the World Series, which was understandably a hot topic during Thursday’s workout.
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Asked if he sees himself in a Yankees uniform in the long term, Soto smiled and looked down at his long-sleeve T-shirt with the famous interlocking "NY" on the chest.
“I see my uniform right now. Definitely, I’m seeing myself right now,” he said. “My focus is where I’m at and what I can do with this team and the spot that we are [in]. We are the last two teams standing right now, so I feel like I’m just focused on that.”
No surprise there; since the first day of Spring Training, Soto has been swatting away inquiries about his next contract, flicking them foul like the toughest pitches from that Gaddis at-bat in Cleveland.
That night, Jazz Chisholm Jr. paraded through the clubhouse, shouting, “Pay my guy! Pay Juan Soto! $700 million!” That gulp you just heard may have come from managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, but it may not be a bad guess.
Other experts have tossed out nine-digit numbers with fives and sixes on the front, but it’s clear Soto can plan on fielding proposals from multiple suitors (including, most likely, the Mets). Will Soto go for every dollar on the table, or will this Yankees environment in which he seems so comfortable be a deciding factor?
“We will see at the end of the day,” Soto said, deftly fouling off another query. “Definitely, every player wants to be happy where they’re at. At the end of the day, whenever you win, you’re really going to be happy. Wherever you are that you have a chance to win a baseball championship, I think you’re going to be happy.”
Yankees captain Aaron Judge said that he hasn’t started his recruiting pitch for Soto to stay, but it’s on deck.
“We’ve got bigger things ahead of us right now with trying to take care of this World Series,” Judge said. “I know when the time comes, when this is all over, he’ll make the right decision.”
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Gerrit Cole, who will start Friday’s Game 1 of the World Series, said that he also has yet to approach Soto on that topic.
“I certainly would love to see him stay,” Cole said. “I think he's a wonderful player and an amazing talent. Hopefully the actions of this organization, both of his teammates and everybody that pours into this club, speak for themselves in terms of how much we want him and what he means to us, especially while he's here.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that talk should be “for another day,” noting that no one in the clubhouse is looking past Game 1. But Soto said that it was meaningful to hear teammates speak so highly of his impact and the urgency of keeping him for next season.
“I feel really good about it. I really feel proud about it,” Soto said. “It tells you how good of a job you’ve been doing throughout my days here. I’ve just been enjoying it. I’ve been really happy to have them. They are really nice. They are great teammates. I’m more than happy to hear that from them.”