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  • February 18, 2025
How the Yankees’ refusal to give Juan Soto a luxury suite led to a Mets deal

How the Yankees’ refusal to give Juan Soto a luxury suite led to a Mets deal

In the now historic free agent negotiations with 26-year-old slugger Juan Soto, the New York Yankees went almost everywhere the Mets went, even surpassing the previous contract record of $700 million set by the Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star. Shohei Ohtani, in the the club’s latest offer for the four-time All-Star.

But the Yankees’ unwillingness to budge on one small detail, which the Mets agreed to, may have made a difference in Soto agreeing to switch districts for the future. record, $765 million deal.

The Mets offered Soto and his family a suite at Citi Field, while the Yankeeswouldn’t budge“on the suite, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. New York, which had given suites to five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter and two-time American League MVP Aaron Judge on the condition that they pay for them, didn’t see fit to give Soto the suite for nothing, but instead gave him a suite to be offered at Yankee Stadium at a discount.

Heyman also reported that a incident involving an overzealous Yankees guard seemed to irritate Soto earlier this year, although the club apologized to him and he “forgave them”. But with the offer of the free suite and the knowledge of where the Yankees may have briefly overstepped their bounds, the Mets seemingly appealed to Soto’s family as much as the generational loser.

In addition to the suite, the Mets’ offer included a $75 million signing bonus, compared to the Yankees’ $60 million, a fifth-year opt-out, which, if voided by the club, would reduce Soto’s average annual value would escalate from $51 million to $55. million over the final ten years of the deal, a no-trade clause and no deferrals (the Yankees’ offer also included no deferrals).

Money talks, and it’s clear that these perks have certainly sweetened the pot for Soto. But most of all, it appears that Cohen, baseball’s richest owner determined to win, and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns have sold Soto on the club’s vision for the future, which may have spoken louder than any wealth also. the superstar player was offered.