On Monday at Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters hours after losing out on superstar free agent Juan Soto.
Soto, after a superlative 2024 season with the Yankees, wound up agreeing to a record 15-year, $765 million contract with Steve Cohen and the crosstown New York Mets. The bidding was quite obviously feverish, and the Yankees, despite vast resources and the supposed incumbent's advantage, were unable to keep Soto in the Bronx. As for Cashman, he defended the efforts of owner Hal Steinbrenner to re-sign Soto. Specifically, Cashman said:
"I would say Hal went above and beyond to try to find a way to keep Juan Soto in pinstripes. … There's a lot of ways to figure this thing out. We're just gonna have to figure out a different way."
While there's a "well, what is he supposed to say" element to this given that Steinbenner signs Cashman's check, in this instance it's a defensible stance. According to multiple reports, the Yankees offered Soto $760 million over 16 years. Given what it took to get Soto, that qualifies as a vigorous, good-faith effort on the part of the Yankees. It says something not particularly good about the Yankees that it wasn't enough to bring Soto back, but the money wasn't really the problem.
Speaking of money, the Yankees have plenty of it, and now they don't have it committed to Soto. They still need outfield help, a strong rotation addition, and some bullpen reinforcements. In the aftermath of his former superstar's departure, Cashman cautioned against thinking the Yankees would spend at Soto levels despite Soto no longer being on the market -- like "drunken sailors" in his version but that certainly doesn't mean a quiet winter the rest of the way.
