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DALLAS— If money really was the answer decisive factor for Juan Soto in free agency, it’s no surprise that the superstar outfielder is the Mets about the Yankees.

His offers from both New York teams were relatively similar: the Yankees went ‘above and beyond’ their comfort zone to enter record territory with Soto – but anyone can admit that the Mets’ offer was bigger and better.

Soto got $765 million over 15 years from the Mets, a $3.5 million difference in average annual value compared to the Yankees’ offer of $760 million over 15 years. The Mets also included a $75 million signing bonus and escalators to push the deal above $800 million.

However, there is reportedly more to this decision. While the Mets gave Soto’s family a suite, the Yankees weren’t willing to include the same benefit in their offer. Jon Heyman of the New York Post. They didn’t want to change the precedent of superstars like Aaron Judge, Derek Jeter and others paying for their own suites. Heyman too reported that earlier this season Soto was reportedly upset by an “overzealous Yankees security man who denied a family member and his chef/driver access to certain areas.”

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked directly about both issues in the Soto sweepstakes on Wednesday during the Winter Meetings.

As for the suite situation, Cashman believes a suite is not a “possession arrow” in any direction when a player is making that kind of money.

“Some high-end players who make a lot of money for us, if they want suites, they buy them,” Cashman said.

He went through the Yankees’ process of providing stadium seats to wives and family members, adding that a suite is also available due to weather and other factors.

“If they ever want to be upstairs, they have the choice to be downstairs or upstairs and be protected and enjoy it,” Cashman explained. “We have set up a great family room with a babysitter. It’s a great, safe setup to take care of families and things like that. But obviously, if we have a squad with a lot of great players and high-end players, we went through a process in previous negotiations where this could have happened, and this is what we did. We are going to honor that. So I don’t regret that.”

Cashman then told a story about how he made the CC Sabathia deal when he signed with the Yankees in free agency. He recalled how articles were written about his attempts to go to Sabathia’s house, as if he were making a deal with a top recruit as a college coach.

“A lot of stories came out of that,” Cashman said. ‘The truth is that I hit him over the head with a large sum of money. That story didn’t get written that often and I thought, wow, it sounds like I’m Superman! Ultimately, the reality is that if you peel the onion, we had by far the highest bid, or at least that’s what I would think. CC loved every step of winning a World Series and his family still lives here. However it turns out, whether the suite was the problem or whatever, was it real?”

Cashman did acknowledge that a player is under enormous pressure to make the right decision when signing a deal of this magnitude. The choice can be “crippling” and “debilitating,” Cashman said, in choosing who to play for and where to live for more than a decade. There will be pros and cons for each franchise, not to mention the difference in money. Ultimately, he reiterated that he has no regrets about the Yankees’ pitch and wouldn’t change anything about his team’s attempt to keep the star in pinstripes.

And as for the altercation with the guards, Cashman said he only heard about it after Soto made his decision about the Mets last weekend.

“I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but if it was that big of a deal, I would have heard from Scott Boras, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’” Cashman said. “I’ve never heard of that stuff.”

Boras, who held his annual press conference with reporters during the Winter Meetings on Wednesday, declined to comment. He did not answer questions about Soto because the deal has not yet been announced.