As Juan Soto weighs his future in meetings with suitors over the next week, the free agent’s most recent team is not hiding its interest in the outfielder.
New York Yankees closer Luke Weaver was asked on Tuesday’s episode of “The Show” with The New York Post’s Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman for his Soto prediction. Instead, he pivoted to explaining how much he appreciated being his teammate and how Soto lifted him up.
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“I love that man. I really do. I love being on his team,” Weaver said. “I do not love being on the other team, which I have been a couple times. … He‘s the best guy. He’s a humble superstar. He has all the attributes you want, obviously, on the baseball field and as a human being in the clubhouse. I have nothing but amazing things to say about him. We formed a great relationship.
“I’ll never forget the first time he called me … he called me a unicorn because I was doing a lot of different roles and doing multi-innings and doing these things and just trying to help the team, and it felt like the biggest compliment in the world coming from one of the greatest players we’ve all ever seen, right? And even though he’s younger than me and hasn’t been in the game as long, even though it has been a long time for him now, it was just one of those type of, I guess, moments where he continued to say it, and I was just like, I’m humbled every time he did.”
The compliment was warranted. Weaver, 31, developed into the Yankees’ best leverage option and took over the closer’s role late in the season and the playoffs. In 84 regular-season innings, he posted a 2.89 ERA with 103 strikeouts and a 0.929 WHIP. He had 22 holds and four saves. He was leaned on heavily in the postseason, pitching 12 times for 15 innings. He gave up three earned runs and struck out 16 with four saves, three blown saves and a hold.
While the Yankees’ most stressful negotations this offseason might come with Soto, who has attracted big-spending competition like the New York Mets, the easier decision of their offseason likely came with Weaver, who had a $2.5 million club option after earning $2 million in 2024.
“He means a lot to me as a teammate and as a player,” Weaver said. “And boy, oh boy. I mean, I think it’s (an) infinity amount that you can give this man, and he would be worth every penny. So I really hope they can get it done.”
Soto is likely to sign a long-term deal of around 13-15 years and at least $600 million.
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