The New York Mets have landed Juan Soto, the biggest prize in free agency, giving him the largest contract in all of professional sports: $765 million for 15 years, a full $100-million more than what the Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani. Additionally, the Mets’ offer just beat the Yankees’ own deal by only inches, as Soto’s former team offered him a deal worth $700 million for 16 years. It remains unclear whether the Mets can replicate what the Ohtani signing did for the Dodgers, which is winning the World Series in his first year there, but Mets fans out there are already celebrating this signing. However, Mets owner Steve Cohen did admit to feeling defeated in the moments before Juan Soto agreed to join them.
Throughout the weekend, even in the hours before Soto agreed to the deal, Cohen had remained convinced that the Yankees will end up winning the Juan Soto sweepstakes. After all, the Yankees had the 27 World Series championships, and they had reached the promised land last season, though they lost to the Dodgers in five games.
Moreover, the Yankees had Aaron Judge, 2024 AL MVP, and both Judge and Soto had built a relationship during their time with the team.
“I was being logical,” Cohen admitted, via Jon Heyman for the New York Post. “When you have [Aaron] Judge, it’s tough to beat that. Juan was great. But what they had… I didn’t know how to solve that.”
Mets land the biggest fish in free agency
However, Steve Cohen was right that Juan Soto would only agree to a deal with either the Mets or the Yankees, despite the involvement of other teams like the Dodgers, Blue Jays, and the Red Sox.
Likewise, this hunch kept Cohen bidding, despite his persistent feeling that his offer would come up short and the superstar hitter would end up returning to his old team.
“There was a lot of emotion and a lot of ups and downs, not knowing where you stood,” the team owner continued.
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Still, his efforts paid off in the end, as the Yankees declined to match the final offer, and both Steve Cohen and Juan Soto shared a short conversation about the highlight of free agency, where he thanked his new superstar for joining the team.
“Juan’s going to be very happy with the Mets,” he said. At this point, it’s clear the hitter is more than pleased with his decision, as an Instagram video of Soto doing a champagne bath after the deal’s announcement soon went viral on social media.
While Cohen said he wanted the Mets and Yankees to coexist in New York, per the report, but the two teams’ showdown next season might force fans to decide if the Big Apple still was a Yankees town or it now belonged to their longtime little brothers.