If there’s one thing we know about Scott Boras’ pending free agent clients, it’s that contract negotiations typically don’t happen during the season. Why create a distraction when you are trying to increase your value?
There’s also the part about Boras creating an off-season bidding war for his client’s services to get the biggest deal possible.
The New York Yankees have Juan Soto for the 2024 season, and given the way he and the team have started, ownership expects to keep him for the rest of his career.
In the last episode of YES Network Reporter Jack Curry’s “Yankees News and Views” PodcastTeam owner Hal Steinbrenner expressed his desire to keep Soto in pinstripes forever.
“Well, I think we’d like to see you here for the rest of your career,” said Steinbrenner.. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Your agent, Scott [Boras], usually doesn’t do business in the middle of the season. Me neither. I think it might be a distraction, but like I said in spring training when I met you guys, I mean, this is a unique situation and a unique player.
Soto started well, batting .310 with 9 home runs and 34 RBIs for the 30-15 AL East leaders.
Steinbrenner went on to say that he “wouldn’t be shocked” if there were conversations with Boras during the season about a possible deal.
“I think it’s worth doing at some point,” Steinbrenner said. “I want Juan to have time to really settle in and make sure, you know, have a conversation with him at some point. Make sure that obviously the most important thing is that this is a place where he can see himself for a long time?
Boras wouldn’t add much to Steinbrenner’s desire to keep Soto, telling Curry that he’s “happy” to talk to Yankee brass and that his client’s “singular focus is winning.”
While with the Washington Nationals in 2022, Soto reportedly rejected a 15-year, $440 million offer. In August of that season, unable to reach an agreement on an extension, the Nationals traded him to the San Diego Padres and he signed a one-year contract worth $23 million.
In January, Soto and the Yankees reached a pre-arbitration agreement on a one-year, $31 million contract following a trade with the Padres.
That contract is coming to an end after this season, and after seeing what Shohei Ohtani signed for this past offseason, it’s not out of the question that Soto’s next deal — whether with the Yankees or another team — could come close or even eclipse what the Los Angeles Dodgers paid.
