Insider weighs in on whether Yankees’ Juan Soto will sign extension before free agency
It sounds like All-Star outfielder Juan Soto won’t dedicate his long-term future to the New York Yankees anytime soon after he joined them from the San Diego Padres via a trade announced late Wednesday night.
While SNY’s Andy Martino reported earlier in the week that Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner is willing to raise the club’s payroll “to more than $300M for the first time” to pay the likes of Soto and Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto when big-money players such as Aaron Judge are already on the books, Yankees senior vice president and general manager Brian Cashman revealed on Thursday he hadn’t “had any conversations regarding” an extension with Soto.
Soto is set to become a free agent after the 2024 season and likely will ink a deal larger than the nine-year, $360M contract Judge signed last December. As for Ohtani, the two-way superstar could be close to putting pen to paper on an agreement worth around $600M that may or may not come from the Toronto Blue Jays.
