The New York Yankees failed to sign Juan Soto. Is this a disaster? Yes and no.
No in the sense that the Yankees can sign several other guys instead. Steve Cohen won the owners’ duel, but Brian Cashman must not be completely dissatisfied with the turn of events. Many people talk about good for evil, basically.
It must be remembered that by letting Bryce Harper go, the 2019 Nationals signed pitcher Patrick Corbin, without whom the World Series would never have been possible in Washington.
But at the same time, it’s a disaster because the Yankees don’t have another Juan Soto pushing. Because yes, the Nationals had let Harper go also because of the presence of Juan Soto.
But what I’m telling myself is that if the Yankees didn’t do All what they had to do to convince Soto, that’s where there may be a problem.
And reading a text by Jon Heyman on the subject, I wonder to what extent the “history of the box” at Yankee Stadium may have influenced the case a bit.
Because we may say that the Yankees’ offer was only five million dollars away from that of the Mets, but we must not forget all the elements that are next to it.
And among these? The lodge.
Basically, Steve Cohen offered, in Soto’s contract, a box at Citi Field for the Soto family. Hal Steinbrenner refused to do so because “Aaron Judge and Derek Jeter pay for their box” at Yankee Stadium.
My problem here is not that the Yankees didn’t include this in the contract. My problem is reason. After all, Soto is a completely different file.
Judge and Jeter never had a $760 million offer on the table…and that didn’t stop the Yankees from dropping one on Soto. Why is it different for the lodge now?
Yesterday, I saw a text in which it was written that Soto had not chosen the future of the Mets over the future of the Yankees, but rather the future of the Mets over the passé Yankees. I found that a harsh sentence… but it makes sense now.
I’m not saying Soto should be insulted that he didn’t get the box office in his Bronx bid. But what I’m saying is that the Yankees were stuck not taking advantage of the fact that it increases the value of the deal without raising the mark on the club’s luxury tax.
It was easy to add, but it didn’t get done. And even if this is not the main reason for his change of team, I still find that the Yankees did not help themselves.
