The Dodgers are poised to become the latest club to meet with superstar free agent Juan Soto, per a report from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand earlier this evening. The meeting between the sides is scheduled for tomorrow. The Dodgers will join the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Blue Jays in having met with Soto already, although Feinsand also reports that an undisclosed team in addition to that group has already met with Soto as well. The Giants, Phillies, and Rays are among the teams known to have interest in Soto that have not yet had a publicly reported meeting with the star outfielder.
That Soto and the Dodgers have a meeting set up is an interesting development given the somewhat mixed reports regarding the club’s plans regarding the superstar. Previous reports have indicated while L.A. intends to be somewhat involved in Soto’s free agency, those reports have also cautioned the club may not be as aggressive as other suitors. That relatively cautious approach to Soto on the Dodgers’ part could be at least partially due to questions regarding whether or not Soto, who hails from the Dominican Republic and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, prefers to play on the east coast. Notably, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this evening that sources close to Soto have “downplayed” that rumored geographic presence, suggesting that Soto previously enjoyed living on the west coast while he played for the Padres.
It’s impossible to know where Soto’s geographic preferences lie, but Soto has emphasized in comments to reporters that winning is a priority for him, to the point of reportedly asking the Red Sox during his meeting with club officials about the organization’s commitment to winning. If winning is a priority for Soto, it’s hard to argue against the Dodgers. The reigning World Series champions have made the postseason in twelve consecutive seasons, and since 2017 have averaged more than 102 wins per year (excluding the 60-game 2020 season where they went 43-17 and won the World Series) while collecting two additional NL pennants in addition to their World Series championships. Last winter, the club added likely Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow to an impressive core of talent that already included Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Los Angeles figures to remain a juggernaut in the NL for years to come, and the addition of Soto to their already vaunted lineup would only reinforce that.
Given his elite talent, any club would be able to find a place for Soto in their lineup. With that being said, it’s particularly easy to see how Soto would fit into the Dodgers’ plans. With Mookie Betts expected to move back into the infield for the 2025 season, the club could look to make multiple additions to an outfield mix that presently includes only utility man Tommy Edman and youngster Andy Pages as potential everyday options. Even if the club wanted to reunite with free agent slugger Teoscar Hernandez as has been previously rumored, it’s easy to imagine the pair manning the corner outfield spots for the Dodgers with Edman as the primary center fielder while Pages backs up the starting trio and fills in for Edman on days he moves to the infield.
Financially, as mind-boggling as it may be to imagine the Dodgers inking Soto to a contract worth more than half a billion dollars just one year after committing more than a billion to Ohtani and Yamamoto amid last winter’s spending spree, the deferred structure of Ohtani’s contract could make such an expenditure more reasonable. The club’s payroll for 2025 is currently projected at $276MM, according to RosterResource. That clocks in $50MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, opening a clear pathway to adding Soto even at a record-setting average annual value. That wouldn’t leave much room for much-needed rotation upgrades or further offensive additions such as a reunion with Hernandez, but ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez notes that the value of Ohtani’s first season in L.A. “blew away” the club’s financial projections. Given that reality, it’s certainly not impossible to imagine the club having even more payroll space at their disposal than returning to the level that left them with the second-highest payroll in baseball last year.
Regardless of what club Soto ultimately ends up with, Feinsand goes on to report a belief around the league that a decision could be made in the near future. Specifically, Feinsand suggests that while Soto isn’t expected to sign prior to Thanksgiving, the “feeling around the league” is that the 26-year-old could land somewhere prior to the Winter Meetings with one executive suggesting to him that it would be a surprise if he hasn’t signed before the end of the Meetings on December 12. With the Winter Meetings just a month away and no team reported to have so much as made a formal offer to Soto yet, it’s possible that the winter’s top free agent could see his market begin to move quickly after the coming holiday.
A fan met with Juan Soto, and got his autograph wow Soto signed
I don’t know about that, but what I do know is the leaked reports, likely from Heyman, will be that the meeting with the Dodgers went really great. The Boras playbook.
Simply an attempt to increase the cost. He’s staying in NY. My hope is he remains with the Yankees but the cost prevents even the Bronx Bombers from making other moves (improving defense mainly).
When has a leaked report about one of these meetings ever said the meeting went terrible?
Imagine if the dodgers got him and Sasaki. Payroll be damned eh
MLB needs a salary cap that way stuff like this can’t happen. Or at the very least they should not be allowed to defer money like they did with Ohtani. Teams shouldn’t be allowed to sign a guy to a 70 million dollar a year deal and only pay him 2 million for the 10 years he’s on the team.
It’d be better for the League to add a new franchise to the LA market to curb spending. Additional competition for market shares in the long run would limit the deepness of their pockets. This idea would eliminate the necessity for a salary cap, and I suspect the Players Union would readily agree for more spots for players.
Would a third team really limit the Dodgers so much though?
London has a half-dozen Premier League clubs, and Arsenal and Chelsea still print money.
That would be a great way to get additional Dodger home games
MWeller77 — It’s not a short term solution, its about taking a share of the market away, whether it is foot traffic or TV viewership, the point is to make them compete. Plus there will be fans that view it as an opportunity to support a team closer to them or initially easier to afford as the team woes people to become patrons.
This comes up every time a player gets or wants a significant salary. The MLBPA will never allow a salary cap. Ever. In case you didn’t hear or see what I said, the MLBPA will never allow a salary cap. Ever.
You’re right and the MLBPA—along with the owners who refuse a salary floor— are gonna destroy the game with their greed. They are already on their way.
@fox471 Dave
You are right about that for this lifetime. However, this business model that MLB and MLBPA has built is going to fail at some point if there isn’t something in place that truly stops big market teams from building super teams while the best player on 2/3rds of MLB teams would be supporting cast on those super teams, and in some cases, some teams’ best players would stuggle to make the starting lineup of those superteams.
Now I am happy that baseball is a sport where it’s hard to win champipnsips and build dynasties, and the 6th playoff spot kind of allows everyone a chance to make the postseason, but a league cannot continue to function like this without adjustments to prevent fans from turning away in most markets, or makes it hard for new fans to be made in most markets when their local baseball team can’t keep star players, but their local NBA, NFL, or NHL team can keep star players in the same market. I’ll use South Florida as an example. Look at the Marlins in contrast to the Heat, Dolphins, and Panthers. There are many other MLB cities in the same situation in how their team team weighs in against the other local sports teams.
You are right, but MLB is the most poorly run league of the four major sports leagues.
Exactly @Pete’sView.
Part of me, because I think it could force changes in MLB, kind of hope that the Dodgers sign Soto and a couple other prime free agents, and go on a Dynasty run. At this point, when I see this, and I see Ohtani and Soto both being guys who will make more in their contracts than many primary owners in MLB are worth, I say this system is breaking fast, and I’m a fan of a team in a great market that has been failed drastically by MLB, so let MLB hurt themselves to the point of imploding and forcing the owners and MLBPA into having no other choice but to come together and get this fixed with a Cap&Floor system.
And you know what, let the Mets sign everyone too! And the Yankees also! Get the three All Star teams filled with players signed to contracts that pay more than many of your primary owners are worth. Build those super teams and make this league implode. At this point, it’s the only way they’ll fix it since they’re letting it get broken worse and worse.
Banned – Poorly run would imply losing money.
Au contraire, they have record-setting revenue and profits.
They just had a World Series with record-setting ratings. Why? Because the two Evil Empires played each other.
It sucks for the rest of us fans, but it’s not a problem for MLB.
The Dodgers have one legit championship in the last 36 years and the Yankees have none since 2009. Lets see how many of their bloated contracts blow up in their face.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Poorly run also means not maintaining a long shelf life. When you are going this route, it won’t be long before they can’t make new fans – which they already struggle to get outside of the big markets. And at some point, they will be the fourth ranked major sport. They already are knocked off the pedestal in many MLB cities that also have teams from the other sports. You think that isn’t a sign of being poorly run, and of long term things to eventually come?
Look at every MLB city that has other sports teams other than the big markets. Look how those teams compare with the other local sports teams.
Banned – Between the current CBT overage penalties (such as 110% tax in some situations) and the watering down of the postseason, I think it’s unlikely a team such as the Dodgers or Yankees will run off a dynasty.
Sure MLB has an image problem, and they are probably the 3rd-most popular sport in the US. But it’s certainly not because the same teams are winning all the time.
Just from my Toronto perspective, the jays are easily the 3rd most popular of the big teams and if TFC ever get out of their rebuild could easily be the 4th biggest team in the city. Only reason jays are as popular as they are is because their the only team in Canada and rogers needs them for their programming. Now if the jays make a big trade and sign Soto or some other big FA then things might be different.
But look at MLB teams like Oakland, Tampa, Miami, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Colorado just off the top of my head are all teams that easily lose money in MlB. What other major sport can a team just go ahhh we’re never gonna spend on our teams ever and sit with payrolls between 50-100 milllion while other team will have 2-3 guys on their roster making what another teams whole operational budget is. Any league that operates like that is doomed to fail in the long run (funny I know saying that about one of the oldest leagues) It’s why every NHL fan is so happy to see the tire fire that was the Arizona Coyotes finally relocate.
I’ve been hearing that since, well, since I started watching baseball 50+ years ago. Since then, revenue has exploded, attendance has increased, owners keep getting rich.
I disagree I am a huge Giants fan, my brother in law a huge padres fan, my best friend from the Marines a huge Dodger fan. We are all season ticket holders or at least I was until my job required more travel. Neither myself or my brother in law have spent less on baseball because the dodgers are this super team you guys talk of, and my best friend has spent only more as ticket and concessions go up at Chavez latrine. Folks said the same about the Yankees in the 90’s. You might be right if the Giants played next to the dodgers but I’m not going to go to LA to watch baseball when I live in the Bay Area and my brother in law isn’t going to deal with driving to LA when he lives in downtown SD.
Pete’s View: As a fan of a team owned by an owner who refuses to open his purse, I’d like to see a salary floor to force Reinsdorf, Fisher and other skinflint billionaires to spend some money on their teams (Moreno and the Rockies’ owner too). However, even though I was never for a cap before, the Dodgers might have – or will – taken things too far. Obviously the luxury tax hasn’t been a deterrent, and the Dodgers have already turned their noses up at it. If they add Sasaki and/or Soto, a real commissioner should step in and do something about the imbalance in the game and make the cheapskates pay and the keep the chronic spenders reign it in. Too bad we don’t have a commissioner with a spine.
@petes
100%! The greed by both sides are destroying the game. Neither care about fans at all, just getting paid or profits.
They have a salary floor, it’s the MLB minimum x26
Zerb – That is an excellent point. Really we should all be pushing to increase the floor.
Stop with the babbling. Your ancestors made the same claim when free agency was new. Then they whined the same thing when the first player got $1,000,000 annually, and you have have taken up the cause and keep yapping on aimlessly. That said, you are amusing.
Dodgers getting Soto and sasaki this off-season would make a salary cap, there would be enough complaints for even manfred to make a change
The warriors in the nba made new salary cap rules because of them signing Kevin Durant and Demarcus cousins
Baseball needs a floor before a cap. There are so many penalties for teams exceeding luxury tax thresholds, but 0 penalties for cheap owners doing nothing.
Von – The solution is simple. No revenue sharing recipients can have more than a $10M profit, if they do then they are penalized for every dollar over $20M up to the amount of revenue they received.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Simple solution that you’re oversimplifying.
Your simple solution does not account for when players like Soto and Ohtani, and many others to follow, are getting contracts with the big market teams that exceed the worth of many of the primary owners of other MLB teams.
Also, if Steve Cohen decides he wants a player from 25 of the MLB markets, how does your solution stop him from running up the pricetag until the owner of the team truly can’t afford it? Look up the worth of all the MLB owners. Ohtani will make more in his contract than many owners are worth. Soto is joining that club any day now. Maybe those teams should just go and offer team ownership in negotiations since they are now making more in 10 or less years than owners are worth.
Banned – My simple solution was in response to a salary floor. It’s to solve the issue of teams pocketing their revenue sharing money they are receiving.
Sure I would love to limit how much teams can spend, but a hard cap will never happen.
And I find it somewhat humorous that everyone here is coming down on the Dodgers, but it’s actually the Phillies who have the highest projected CBT payroll right now for 2025.
Banned: the problem is that salary caps don’t prevent super teams either, which is even more prevalent in capped leagues like the NBA (or exactly what Ohtani did). The only way to truly prevent it is to take the decision out of the hands of the player, which will never happen. And the NFL has had many more teams that dominate leagues than baseball. The reason people don’t complain is because a .500 record now gets you a playoff game or two in the NFL. Mediocrity is what that league has grown accustomed to.
Agreed no revenue sharing and do what other leagues are doing and punish repeat offenders who are picking in the top 5 of the draft year after year
That’s why a floor is needed it keeps the salaries from going absolutely insane unless a team is willing to go way above the luxury tax. It wouldn’t keep super teams from happening by itself but other rule tweaks such as only allowing a certain portion of salary being deferred would make it harder for teams to work around the luxury tax and in so doing keep super teams from forming (unless naturally through trades and farm system)
Baseball needs a floor AND a cap. Give every team a range to spend. You must spend this much of you forfeit ALL your draft picks the next year. You must not spend more than this much or you forfeit ALL your draft picks the next year.
This is not a capitalist situation. It should be closer to socialism, because every team needs every other team. The Dodgers can spend all they want, but if they don’t have anyone to play…what good is it? People liked the Harlem Globetrotters as a unique event, but no one wanted to see the Harlem Globetrotters in the NBA for 82 games a year.
Clip: It’s the same in baseball. 12 teams in the PO, some of which are rewarded for barely finishing above .500. That’s one of the many things I like about European soccer. One division. The team that finishes in first wins the league. No playoffs. And the race for first (as well as the relegation battle at the bottom of the table) is every bit as exciting as a 12-team playoff.
But the dodgers (or Mets or Yankees) will have an astronomical payroll on top of an already high payroll with a bunch of stars
The Phillies last signed turner but they haven’t really dominated free agency like LA or the NY teams Philly just extends
There’s more disparity in those leagues than in any other in any sport.
@Fever Pitch Guy That will change drastically as the season starts. The Phillies have the highest payroll right now because they’re not losing much in Free Agency. 37 of their 40 roster spots are currently filled. Most teams have much less than that. Don’t get me wrong, Phillies will still be in the top 10, but they certainly won’t be number 1 when the season starts. Mets and Yankees will surpass them.
Von – I totally agree! But until that happens, it seems silly for people to focus on only the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets as the big spenders.
And the Phillies are technically in on Soto, which means they do have a chance of going into the 2025 season with the top payroll. I don’t know how serious they are, as I admittedly don’t follow the Phillies as closely.
@von purple Phillies actually have more roster spaces. there are 10 teams with less than 37 and 14 teams with more than 37, with 7 of those being completely full.
Ill let you tell the MLB players union that you want a salary cap. They will be prepared to strike for as long as it takes to break that. The Dodgers will get Soto and and starting pitcher they want. Could win a few World Series in a row here. You didnt think they would just stop at Ohtani?
Have a hard cap number
Let’s first try a soft, flexible floor similar to the soft, flexible top, which will force all teams to spend.
Ohtahni only has to pay the income tax on the $2 million annual salary. He will avoid paying taxes on the majority of his deferred money because he will receive it as converted yen after he moves back to Japan. He also avoids having to pay California state income tax.
Why so the owners keep more money? Pay the players what the market will allow. All MLB owners are billionaires, just some choose to invest back into their team. Teams shouldn’t be limited to how much they want to invest in their own business.
If you don’t like your owner, don’t go to games, don’t buy their merchandise, don’t watch their games. Dodger fans hated McCourt and boycotted the team enough to where it wasn’t profitable and he was forced to sell the team.
This is just the wrong mindset. NONE of the owners spend their own money on teams. Teams spend the revenue they generate. It’s not that the owners spend more of their own money, it is that the big market teams generate more revenue because of a higher population. If owner’s had to spend their own money on teams yearly spending, very few owners would want to be in the business.
And a “fan boycott” had absolutely nothing to do with McCourt selling the Dodgers. It was about his divorce and subsequent bankruptcy.
hiflew – True that owners don’t spend their own money very often, but they do sometimes (Cohen certainly did). The thing is, nearly half the teams don’t need to generate revenue …. they are the recipients of revenue sharing.
That’s what so many people here don’t understand, the small market teams RELY on the success of the Dodgers and Yankees because the more the Dodgers and Yankees make, the more teams like the Athletics and Pirates receive. That’s why you never hear a team complaining about the big spending of another team.
And it’s not always about population. Chicago is a massive market, how are the ChiSox doing revenue-wise? While the Cubs are bringing in $506M, the ChiSox are bringing in only $288M.
Same with Toronto, massive population but not a huge amount of revenue. They lost $45M last year because they brought in only $328M.
Sasaki won’t cost much
In terms of payroll, Sasaki would be a spit in the ocean for any team.
bigdaddyt — You mean all but L.A. Dodger fans be damned. This cannot be healthy for MLB.
sasaki will cost a tm around $8-10mil total
his big paycheck will come in 6 yrs, if he’s still healthy and productive
Sasaki isn’t going to cost much at all, so the Dodgers can certainly afford him, but I suspect we’re going to be surprised as it will be some other team. Endorsements will be important to Sasaki but he’d end up playing third fiddle in L.A., overshadowed by Ohtani and Yamamoto. Not sure where he’s going, but I predict it won’t be the Dodgers.
That would ruin baseball for a decade
Sasaki wont cost anything except international bonus money
@bigdaddy imagine a world in which every team can sign Sasaki because he can only be signed to a minors contract? That’s the reality with Sasaki.
Next CBA needs some serious changes. Teams over the cap 3 times running get fined $100M, get zero draft picks, and zero international money until they get under. That would clean up this mess a bit.
This “mess” is exactly the mess MLB wants.
Says the Dodger fan. Gimme a break. A more balanced league makes everything better.
The whole history of baseball has been like this. They have done really well for themselves so far.
Veejh: All of that won’t stop the LAD, nym or nyy to continue to spend. They have no qualms about paying the highest level of the luxury tax and don’t rely on draft picks. They just buy ready made players.
No, not says me. Says MLB. They can share revenue any way they please. This is the way they please. Have a nice howl at the moon. Let me know if you hear anything back.
Just last year it was the Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks. The Braves haven’t made an NLCS since 2021, and the Dodgers hadn’t either until they won it all this year.
The Yankees won their first pennant in 15 seasons. There hasn’t been a repeat champion since 2000. There have been 16 different teams to win a World Series since 2000, over half the league.
We already have a balanced league, dimbulb. There’s more parity in MLB than in any other major American sport. Or perhaps you haven’t noticed that the Yankees & Mets COMBINED have won as many WS titles over the past 20 years as the Rangers, Royals, Nationals, or White Sox.
That’s why they celebrated the World Series participants. Better for ratings, which means increased AD Revenue.
So your theory is MLB doesn’t normally celebrate the World Series?
In the last CBA negotiations the MLBPA had asked for a CBT threshold that started at a higher number than it will end up at in 2026. I doubt that the MLBPA agrees to either heavier penalties or a CBT that starts at less than $270 million.
The reason why is simple. rising revenue streams for teams. We know that Atlanta and Toronto that are not top 5 revenue teams, had revenue of $576 and $542 million last season. The CBT was put in place to penalize 2 or 3 teams a year to keep them from spending twice what other teams could afford, not keep teams like the Braves and Blue Jays from spending 50% of their revenue on MLB payroll.
The MLBPA wants what players in other leagues get. 50% of revenue for the sport going to players.
gonna do that, need to put a floor in of at least 100 mill, and any team under that gets 0 revenue sharing money.
I recall seeing a picture of him taking a dodger hat from a fan and throwing it when he was with the padres
Wherever the money is, he goes. Boras told him we are going to pull off a monster deal.
Boras Circus show is all this is..
I wouldn’t be surprised if Juan Soto already knows who he is signing with, but doing the Bora$ circuit to make him look good after last year’s debacle.
And driving up the price, as if that isn’t already going to be astronomical.
TOBTTR: It happened with Ohtani last off-season. He knew all along he was going to the Dodgers. He was stringing the Jays and other teams along, just like Judge did with the Giants and others the year before when he knew he was staying with the Yankees.
Pump up the offer by insinuating more teams are in play besides players desired landing spot. Keep coming back w/false #s of what latest offer is so teams will have to shell out more than they should. Read where Mets already made $660Million offer to Soto. Is that real or Boras ?
Its Boras
You mean he’s marketing himself to get the most money out of teams to make the most money possible?
Manfred needs to Chris Paul any Dodgers and Soto deal for the good of the sport.
Robby the robot wouldn’t dare go against his large market masters.
I love baseball, appreciate the “power” of the NL West and have never really rooted *against* anybody in particular… but I hope the Dodgers do sign Soto and he doesn’t win a chip with ’em. I guess I sound petty, but so be it.
I don’t really want Soto, I’d rather have Teo back and save the money for some other things. I don’t know if he’s a good clubhouse fit; but I also don’t really know that I even know anything about that.
What I do know is that the Dodgers print money and with Ohtani’s deferral they can still add more. And Ohtani/Betts/Soto/Freeman is an all-time great 1-4.
They’ve literally been in on every free agent and every person on the trade wire alive over the past five years and counting.
You’re calling the Dodgers out for something the Padres have been doing the last five seasons. Every free agent. Every big name on the trading block. The Padres have flipped their roster thrice in three years.
Baseball is broken
There’s an original thought.
I’ll be surprised if this happens. The Dodgers can bring back Teo and fill their pitching needs for this price.
Exactly re-sign Teo, add Roki, add Fried n still have big money leftover for other acquisitions. Sometimes best moves are ones u didn’t make.
Why not Teo and Soto?
Third tier CBT.
Like they care.
No Soto, he’s a terrible outfielder and they already have a DH for the next decade.
When Soto is done having steak and lobster with every interested team he’ll end up signing with the Dodgers
Lobster and steak are for peasants!
youtu.be/Ic54ULRx0ZA?si=AECIAPqj9YcNLPUc
“Psst, hey buddy, yeah you… you lookin’ for Ortolans? I might know a guy… ah dunno nothin’!”
If this team gets him then MLB needs to lose money. It’s ridiculous at this point.
They should not even be allowed to negotiate with Soto
Dodgers don’t need Soto. Can put those resources into so many other pursuits. LA is just goin through the motions n helping drive up the price for whoever (Mets) does sign em. With Boras it’ll come dwn to saying there are 3 teams in strong contention plus the proverbial mystery team. Getting them to bid against themselves. His agent magic took a hit last off-season, should be interesting the deals he can procure for his clients this hot stove.
Definitely not. Why in the world would the Dodgers want one of the generation’s best hitters who is 26-years old.
News Flash, adding Soto does not preclude the Dodgers from filling other needs.
Yes it does as Soto puts them above Cohen tax and for every $1 they pay 110% tax. Soto at 650 million would cost Dodgers add’l $800 million tax so its NOT happening plus they have other holes that require fixing.
I don’t know where you are getting your numbers, but Spotrac currently has their payroll under 200 million. Soto would put them over the 1st luxery tax, and they’d still have another 50 mill plus before hitting the cohen tax.
Don’t bother with Spotrac.
The Dodgers have $211,845,711 in payroll for 12 players with guaranteed contracts.
Roster Resource has the Dodgers at $270,56 million for 23 players. Cots Baseball Contracts has them at $272.3 million for 24 players. At least 5 of those players will miss all or a majority of the 2025 season with injuries.
The Dodgers will have to fill out the 26 man roster, so they will be above those numbers.
At $43 million, Soto would put the Dodgers above the Cohen line if everyone else was a pre-arb player called up from the minors. At that price by himself Soto would cost the Dodgers $90.3 million for the 2025 season. That is more than the total opening day payroll for 4 teams in 2024. Adjust that up if they were to give him a higher AAV.
@Niekro funny you’re citing Dodgers needs while they are still shining their World Series trophy.
F MLB if the Dodgers get Soto the system is definitely broken if it happens…
Expand the league in LA and New York to pull down their huge market presence that gives them such a huge advantage. I’m sure LA could hold another team.
Cleveland: It would be interesting if the Angels became a contending team. I know it’s not gonna happen under Moreno, but breaking the Dodgers Dynasty is something to think about.
Sure, why not. Just Monopoly money
Lot of whining going on here for something that’s not going to happen
Why wouldn’t it happen? Dodgers have plenty of money to make it happen and they are the defending champion…
@Butter either put money where your mouth is or you’re just taking up bandwidth. If you absolutely know something is about to happen or not happen, it’s up to you to find a bookmaker and get rich. It’s completely moronic for you to know the future and then not capitalize on it.
I’d wish you good luck, but apparently you don’t need it, so I’ll just congratulate you for taking advantage of an extraordinary opportunity.
As a Dodgers fan, please no…
people freaking out already. both sides just doing their due diligence.
Who IS the mystery team…..?
They probably drive the Mystery Machine.
And the driver is Lord Manfred, driving all the way to more incompetence for MLB. He can’t get two teams to make a deal for new stadiums…
The Super Squad!
@Saber-Tooth mystery team has to be the Durham Bulls
Any team outside of LA or NY meeting with Soto is just doing so for appearances.
whiskey: No, they’re being used.
Dodgers won’t sign him. Leveraging someone paying for him. Bet they resign Hernández and get Fried for less then 200 total.
I don’t think there’s any point to leveraging Soto’s free agency. The price is astronomical regardless. His market isn’t dictated by demand, but supply, and his comparisons are all-time greats. His market is that he’s Juan Soto and he hasn’t even reached the typical player’s peak ages.
More likely they sign Snell than Fried. Friedman tends to avoid players with the QO attached unless they are generational talents.
Hopefully Dodgers sign Soto and Sasaki. Quality organization that invests rather than just lining their billionaire pockets.
Please no..
MLB NEEDS A SALARY CAP TO STOP THIS.
It’s ridiculous at this point.
This was probably Boras begging LAD for a sit down so he could get Soto’s price higher. There’s no logical fit here. Boras/Soto are highly unlikely to defer any money, and LAD simply does not sign long-term Boras contracts. It’s not an impossible match, but they might as well be lumped in with the Rays on their chances of signing Soto.
Can LAD sign him? Sure. Will they, realistically? No.
BorASS!
So stoopid geography won’t matter. All Juan cares about is $$$$$$$.
After seeing what the sheer greed of this league did to the fans on Oakland, I have absolutely zero sympathy about the massive monetary imbalance in the league.
These teams are just investments for billionaires. Fans don’t matter at all anymore.
Maybe one day the league will course correct.
Dodgers will ask if he’ll take deferred money. The answer will be no. End of meeting….
As a born and bred Dodger fan, I don’t want Soto. The money doesn’t make sense, and his terrible defense will age terribly – and Ohtani is the DH for the next 10 years. He’s also a hired gun and cares nothing about loyalty. I say Keep Mookie in right, Edman in center, and one of Teoscar or Pages in left.
And he’s probably about 29, not 26!
I can agree about some of your points but how is Soto a hired gun when he had no control over the teams he has played for thus far? Loyalty goes both ways. The Nats could’ve offered him more money.
He’s going to the highest bidder. Period. Tells me he has zero loyalty
We don’t know that. He simply said he was not limiting his choices at this point, that all teams were welcome to try for his services.
who is he supposed to have loyalty to-the team he played for for all of 1 year? Its not like he’s played 6-7 years with 1 team. 3.5 years with the Nationals, 1.5 years with the padres, and a year with the yankees. He doesn’t have roots with any team. And remember, he didn’t choose any of those teams himself.
I get that there is a built in unfairness due to large markets vs small markets, but a cap would actually be just what the owners want. It would bring down prices for players and boost their profits. Definitely not the panacea that many of you think it is.
Also, I would love to compare the comments of those who posted when the Dodgers added Ohtani, Glasnow and Yamamoto saying they were going to choke with who among them are now whining about the Dodgers having an unfair advantage. It’s almost like some people just want the Dodgers out of baseball. Nobody seems to notice that the Dodgers had the 5th highest CBT last year, not the highest…and that included the $46 million CBT hit for Ohtani. People act like the deferrals for Ohtani meant the Dodgers CBT hit for him is only $2 million. I wonder if these are the same people who think the POTUS can single-handedly stop inflation.
I didn’t hear anyone complaining when the Mets and Padres both had very high payrolls last year. Please stop with all this salary cap crying. You’re only complaining because it’s a team that you hate. If the mariners spent as much as their owners could afford to on payroll then none of you would care. And guess what? It wouldn’t guarantee them anything! Just last year we had two wildcard teams make the WS. The playoffs are a crapshoot and anyone in the tournament can get hot and win it. Spending more can give you slightly better odds but that’s about it.
Bullcrap!
Exactly, Enrico. All these new Padre fans that popped up the last 5 years is because they actually started spending. Before that, Petco was Dodger Stadium South. I was at the game in 2014 where Carlos Quentin broke Zach Grienke’s collarbone – the stadium was 70% Dodger fans. Now all of a sudden it’s cool to be a padres fan. All these people in the Midwest and east coast have no idea. They just love to hate the dodgers because their franchises are inept
The game was in 2013. Thursday April 11th to be specific. I still have my ticket framed with a photo of Greinke thinking he could go toe to toe with Quentin. There were less than 25,000 in the place that night and it was mostly Padres fans. Dodgers fans only show up in numbers on weekends.
After that brawl in the bottom of the 6th we chanted Beat LA the rest of the way. It was LOUD in the bottom of the 6th, especially after Yonder Alonso drove in Amarista who was pinch running for Quentin to tie the game.
In the end the Padres fans enthusiasm didn’t help because Juan Uribe of all people hit a solo shot off Luke Gregerson in the top of the 8th to break a 2-2 tie.
If you are going to claim to have been at a game, at least get the year right next time.
This is beyond sick. Let the clown fake Dodgers come out and tell you their favorite owner could do the same thing. This broken MLB is now ruined congrats you scumbag city, burn more things down at your next parade.
Sore Yankee or Mets fan.
The Rays are meeting with Soto?
Yeah our offer is through the roof apparently
Baseball NEEDS a salary cap!!!
Baseball needs a salary floor too. I’d happily go with a $200 million cap if it comes with a $160 million dollar floor. Good luck getting the cheap owners to agree with that, or the rich owners willing to spend to agree to that, or the players union to agree to that. Nobody involved in baseball wants it, just the fans.
The Dodgers are simply trying to drive his price up. He’s too much of a one trick pony for the Dodgers to be seriously interested.
I’ve wondered this before. What do teams gain by driving up the price? Unless it’s a direct competitor in their division, it seems like that approach hurts all teams. If they drive up the price, all they do in end is make their future contracts more expensive.
I don’t buy the reasoning either. It’s in no team’s interest to drive up the cost of free agents.
Of course it does. If you force, for example, Buster Posey to overpay for Soto he has less money left to fill other holes.
Not only can nobody force anyone to do anything, if the owners can agree on only one item, it’s that they don’t want to see payrolls rise. As with most free agents, Soto will go to the team that is willing to pay him the most. No conspiracy theory required. So I will simply reiterate my original point, because it is so obviously true.
I’m not sure what your major was but it seems clear you weren’t required to take an Econ 101 class. Listen carefully and if you’re not very careful you might learn something. In a capitalistic system price is driven by supply and demand. By openly being involved in contract negotiations with Soto the Dodgers are communicating to the market that there’s greater demand for his services than what would be perceived if they showed no interest. The Soto supply remained unchanged but the overall demand improved significantly. This increases what teams believe it would take to acquire Soto, effectively driving his contract price upward. We learned about supply and demand using widgets as an example instead of Sotos but the principle remains the same.
No team has to communicate to the market; it has only 30 bidders, most of whom are not even legitimately in the market for this player. Everyone who is in the market knows who the other potential bidders are, but none of this makes a fig newton of difference until actual bids are tendered. Further, I notice that you aren’t even going to try to refute my argument that the teams are unmotivated to inflate salaries — I guess because it’s so obviously true. So all in all, you completely destroyed your own argument, with no help from me. But thanks for the condescension, because we can never get enough of that.
My friend is the agent of a current top 10 mlb player and he’s made it clear to me that teams feign interest all the time to drive contract prices up for a competitor. He noted he is more than willing to negotiate with teams knowing full well that when the rubber meets the road they won’t be submitting a written offer.
No matter what your friend says, no offer is still no offer, and it isn’t a sealed bid process like a government contract.
It is a sealed bid process. Unless the player or team chooses to reveal that there was in fact a bid and what the numbers were, no one knows.
It’s exactly like the buildings I bid on. I can reveal that I bid and how much. The government agency or business can reveal that information. There is nothing that precludes that action after the job is awarded. But if neither party does that, no one knows.
In this case one of the highest revenue teams publicly sent ownership, FO, field management, and a current player to meet with Soto and his agent at Boras’ office in Newport Beach. No one is preparing a presentation and sending important people in their organization if there is no intent to engage.
That shows intent and says to the market that there is increased demand. It drives up the price.
Whats a widget? Can we use tape recorders instead of widgets as the example? Maybe I need to go Back To School
Why in the world would it be a sealed bid process? We hear about contract terms being negotiated all the time. How can that happen if it’s a one and done process?
Many sealed bids are not one and done in your verbiage. There are often multiple stages to an RFP. But no one else know if or what you bid.
Interesting, the Dodgers simply stopped doing business with Boras a while ago so I thought.
No. They’ve certainly negotiated with him, including, for example, on the Gerrit Cole contract when he went to the Yankees. There have been others. I don’t think their negotiating style meshes easily with Boras, but I doubt they have cut him off. Doesn’t serve their purposes.
no, the Dodgers talk to Boras-they signed JD Martinez in 2023. But Friedman is reluctant to overpay players, and Boras is notorious for trying to squeeze every last penny out of a team., so unless the player specifically wants to be on the dodgers they don’t usually agree what a players value is.
Didn’t we just read that the Dodgers were not in on Soto?
Not sure why it posted instead of letting me finish my post.
Soto has not lived in Ft Lauderdale since 2021. He sold his condo there shortly after spring training ended that year and bought in the DC area
He sold that in 2023 realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/juan-soto-s… and bought a home in Coronado California. essentiallysports.com/mlb-baseball-news-juan-sotos… or x.com/DevineGospel/status/1638972924039401472
He has been meeting teams at Boras’ Newport Beach offices not just because that is where Boras is located, but he lives close by.
Saw him not try much on a blooper in RF in the WS. Recall another poorly played ball down the line, too. I’d expect a little more effort from someone at the top of the free agent class. He’s born to DH. I’d take him for 4 seasons, not 14. Whatever Andrew Friedman decides on, I’m ok with!
This is due diligence, something every serious team does with every free agent on their target list. There is exactly a 0% chance that anything bad comes from a meeting like this.
It might be to help the Dodgers build a better relationship with Boras for other free agents down the road while Boras gets to help drive up the price on Soto.
The Dodgers are putting together a team of people including someone from ownership, their POBO, their manager, and probably other people from the FO or current players and are going down to Boras’ offices in Newport Beach to do a 3 or 4 hour presentation to Soto on why he should choose the Dodgers.
That is not due diligence. Due diligence is a phone call to Boras.
Prac run for presentations to be made for Roki n Fried. It’s an hour driving to Newport Beach frm dwntwn LA. Not like Toronto or Bosox making the trip as far as logistics.
I’m actually kinda hoping he signs with the Dodgers and I can truly walk away from the game
You won’t be missed.
dodgers ruining baseball. 68/yr deferred and they got away with it. wonder the deferred money soto will get, on top of the sasaki bonus pool only money. man, i grew up hating the yankees for their spending but goddamn, dodgers throwing around contracts like the nba
Ohtani literally offered that deferral to all teams. That was Ohtani’s choice, and he did it so that his contract would not preclude the team he chose from continuing to add on.
Also, nobody in their right mind believes any team would have paid Ohtani $70M/year in present dollars. If they do, I have a very nice bridge I’d like to sell them, cheap — and they won’t have to pay for ten years.
Kinda like how the govt operates, huh?
Dodgers are going to drive his price through the roof, and then have one of the NY teams sign him. Smart.
Losers can’t stop hating on the WS Champs!
Threatening to walk away from baseball?lol
Nobody cares about you.
Soto already has a ring, so it wouldn’t be a total Durant move, but man it would be hard not to guarantee a repeat, even in a funky sport like baseball.
Just floating an idea….if a team signs a “marquee” free agent…they would have a player on their roster sent in return to the former team that would be making up to the free agent’s last contract value.
E.g…if Soto signed with the Dodgers…then the Yankees could select a player from the Dodger’s current roster (valued up to whatever Soto made last year).
Purpose is to simulate some sort of parity without allowing one team to run away with all the “marquee” players…
Just a rambling idea…please don’t shoot me!
Thats what the Qualifying offer is supposed to fix. Dodgers sign Soto and the Yankees get an additional pick in the draft based on how much money they spent and how much the contract soto signed is worth.
What I don’t understand/like about that system is;
A team gets a comp pick in the middle for losing a FA to a specific team. Each time that happens, 28 teams are penalized by being pushed one draft pick lower.
That accumulates.
Teams that have nothing to do with any of it can end up taking drafts 5 or 6 slots lower. Their fans miss out on the higher draft picks.
Why should Tiger fans get screwed because the Yankees lost a FA to the Dodger?
After Soto signs, some teams may not even be able to afford the cost of a Qualifying Offer.
To all those wanting a cap. A hard cap will never be accepted and a soft cap as structured doesn’t work. Large market teams have a competitive advantage in that only so many fans can fit in a stadium and tv money is always going to be larger in a larger city. So the money spent on a “luxury tax” is simply an investment to get tv dollars and plea in comparison to the extra revenue a team like the dodger make over the angels or padres in similar sized markets that don’t win. If you really want to neutralize the advantage on the field, and personally I couldn’t care less as the Giants have given me 3 World Series vs the dodger one this century, then make the penalty affect play on the field. Here is an idea I think both the players and the smaller market teams could agree on and large market teams likely wouldn’t object to too badly. Add 2 roster spots to the 25 man and 3 or 4 to the 40, any team over the cap pays the current penalties and loses those two spots for at least two years until they have stayed under it for two consecutive years. Big markets can still sign stars for mega contracts and in a 162 game season small markets now have a competitive on field advantage hedging against injury and fatigue. Players union gets 50 or so more players on the “25” man roster and 100 or so on the “40” man rosters depending on the teams going over the cap while still getting a shot at mega contracts for superstars.
MLB’s current finance system doesn’t work, according to who?
No, no, no
I honestly don’t want him
I know it’s a personal choice, but we can use that money better spread over multiple players on shorter deals.
Mark my words, the Soto contract long term will have issues, he will end up as over paid DH. What happens when he’s an over paid DH with a cold bat ?
The guy deserved to get paid, I hope he sets his family up for generations. I wish the guy nothing but the best.
Just not at the Dodgers
That’s exactly what I think is happening. Drive it up and divert them from Burnes or Fried.
Next cba
MLB needs to
Increase cbt penalties
Close the loophole of deferred money or only make a percentage of the contract deferrable like 20-25% but no team can exceed say 30%
of payroll with deferrals each year
Let teams trade draft picks but not in back to back years and allow pick swaps
Redo the whole incentive teams to call up top prospects stuff
Id go with if you call up a consensus top 100 prospect to make opening day roster and they spend the entire season on the roster the team gets a draft pick based on salary.
I think if a team goes over the luxury tax you pay with draft picks not money billionaires are the scared of a luxury tax but if they lost their first and second pick in next year’s draft they might think twice about going over…
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers land him, though the Yankees are my first choice.
This would be an absolute travesty for the fans of baseball outside of LA… I’ll be done with the MLB, I know that much.
The owners will need to fix this pronto, either banning delayed compensation contracts or setting a salary cap, This isn’t NYC-LA and the rest of the country. Maybe duplicating the NFL’s approach.
Seems like six weeks ago, the Dodgers were thought to be a disappointing franchise, one that can never win in the playoffs, and their 2020 championship was dismissed as tainted… Nearly all so-called experts picked the Padres to beat the Dodgers in the NLDS and just 1 of 23 experts thought the Dodgers would even make the World Series.
The Yankees have not won a World Series in an entire generation of fans, dating back 15 years now…
Yet, the Yankees and Dodgers are somehow destroying Major League Baseball?
The Dodgers were the favorites to win the WS all season. While NL teams like the Padres and Mets were a +1800 to +2500, the Dodgers were a +700. If you bet $100 you would have won $700 vs $1800-2500 if the Padres or Mets had won.
When the playoffs began the Dodgers were the heavy favorites to win the World Series. A +350. The Padres + 650. The Mets +950.
The Dodgers were -210 to win the NLDS. Lowest return of any team in a Division Series if you placed a bet. In other words you would have to bet $210 to win 100.
Not sure where you get your “information”, but you should check with better “experts”.
They will offer a short term very high AAV salary like they did to Harper. Say, 4 yr / $250m. This would allow him to return to the market for one or two more huge deals and maximize his career earnings. And like Harper (and unlike Bauer), he will turn it down because Boras wants $701m on the bottom line.
Dodgers seem to value defense and base running. Yankees don’t, if you can hit. Soto seems like the epitome of a yankee player. My guess, 10/550 Yankees.
I don’t wish the guy ill, but isn’t about time owners started saying, “No. I am through being stupid and passing the cost to the fans”.
But as long as there are rich folks, with that much disposable income, the rest of us can just go _ ourselves…..
Thank you Billy Crystal…..
He should stay with the Yankees. Ideal ballpark for him. Already proven he could handle the pressure. Helped lead them to the World Series. Going to the highest bidder would be a mistake unless it’s the Yanks. Look how things worked out for Cano.
If they did sign Soto and he has to DH near full time in say 4 or 5 years, the Dodgers will have a situation on their hands. I guess they could win a few championships in that time and possibly sell high on Soto (or dare say Ohtani?) and still make out like bandits… yeah that’s more likely than LA having any sort of “problem” from signing Soto.
26 years/$1.85 billion, all deferred until he retires except league vet minimum.
No on Soto! We need arms not bats
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the luxury tax get divided up to smaller market teams. You certainly don’t hear other owners complaining about the big spenders spending over the tax limit.
You are not wrong, the CBT distributes to the smaller market teams, which are effectively paid to be noncompetitive most of the time, and are further rewarded for doing so with high draft picks. The CBT receivers are not complaining because the system essentially guarantees their profitability for little effort. The fans of these teams are not really part of the equation.
In MLB, fines from the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT), are distributed as follows. Half goes to fund player benefits and pensions, while the other half is distributed equally among teams that did not exceed the CBT threshold.
It does not matter if they are smaller market or larger market as long as they did not surpass the CBT threshold.
Last season there was approximately $209.8 million in fines paid by 9 teams with the Mets paying the Lion’s share of that at about $103 million.
$104.9 million of the fines paid went into player benefits and pensions with the remaining $104.9 million being split by the 21 teams that did not exceed the CBT threshold. Roughly $5 million per team.
True for the CBT, but this isn’t the only form of revenue sharing. Media revenue is also shared between the teams and this probably amounts to a lot more dollars than the CBT and more accrues to the smaller market teams.