Rumor: Red Sox Offer 13 Year, $632 Million Contract To Juan Soto

[Matthew Lenz]

While we were enjoying our Thanksgiving rumors were swirling about the Red Sox and Juan Soto. If you filter through the noise, one credible source provided details on the Red Sox offer to superstar Juan Soto.

Baseball Twitter was quick to react to Gomez's information -- mostly trying to discredit the insider. Gomez fired back with a reminder from 2022 when he was in on the Rafael Devers extension.

Bottom-line: Gomez is a very credible source in the industry and there's no reason to think he would share information that wasn't vetted.

The ~$48 million AAV would put him as the highest or 2nd highest in baseball depending on how you consider Shohei Ohtani's heavily deferred contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

What are your thoughts on the offer?

View full rumor

[mvp 78]

I believe the offer is real. I believe another team may beat this offer. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I believe the offer is real. I believe another team may beat this offer. 

I agree on both counts.

[Bellhorn04]

It's a heap o' scratch, I'll say that much!

I really think this is going to end up as a Yamamoto-style decision.  The money is insane regardless, now where do you actually want to play?  

[Hitch]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I believe the offer is real. I believe another team may beat this offer. 

The offer would need to offset the tax implications, which with the Mets would be no surprise. 

 

It's already A LOT more than I thought we would offer. 

[Seth Stohs]

Wait! The Red Sox offered 13 years and $625 million or so... and, as Cotillo tweeted, the two sides are "very far apart." 

I'm not the biggest Soto fan, by any means, but if I make that offer and it's not close... shift to Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and Alex Bregman... 

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Wait! The Red Sox offered 13 years and $625 million or so... and, as Cotillo tweeted, the two sides are "very far apart." 

I'm not the biggest Soto fan, by any means, but if I make that offer and it's not close... shift to Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and Alex Bregman... 

Just because I have money, doesn't mean I spend it on Alex Bregman. 

[notin]

15 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Wait! The Red Sox offered 13 years and $625 million or so... and, as Cotillo tweeted, the two sides are "very far apart." 

I'm not the biggest Soto fan, by any means, but if I make that offer and it's not close... shift to Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and Alex Bregman...

Maybe Soto wants much, much less…

[notin]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Just because I have money, doesn't mean I spend it on Alex Bregman. 

Adames over Bregman.  Experience be damned…

[Larry Cook]

Time for the Yankees to step up and beat this contract offer and then choke on it for years to come 

[mvp 78]

44 minutes ago, notin said:

Adames over Bregman.  Experience be damned…

Neither!

[mvp 78]

39 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Time for the Yankees to step up and beat this contract offer and then choke on it for years to come 

Mets please.

[Larry Cook]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

Mets please.

How does the Mets choking on a huge contract help us???

[Bellhorn04]

9 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

How does the Mets choking on a huge contract help us???

It makes more sense than the idea of the Yankees having Soto, one of the best hitters in the game, helping us.  

[notin]

14 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Neither!

What’s wrong with Adames?  Or do you have a fetish for sloppy play at the hot corner?

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

Wait! The Red Sox offered 13 years and $625 million or so... and, as Cotillo tweeted, the two sides are "very far apart."  

If that's very far apart, it's time to move on.  I thought Soto was looking for 12/14 years at $45 million.  

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

What’s wrong with Adames?  Or do you have a fetish for sloppy play at the hot corner?

Why bring in Adames when Mayer, Campbell and others are ready and willing in AAA? Use the money on actual needs rather than just whoever is sitting in FA. 

[Hugh2]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I believe the offer is real. I believe another team may beat this offer. 

Agreed.  I wonder how much net pay matters to Soto, because $632 million dollars in Boston is like having $685 million in NY.  

Even if we believe the offer is real, and the Sox are pivoting and getting serious (which is great) that doesn't make them a slam dunk to land Soto, it just puts them in the running.  They're still competing with NYM/NYY/LAD/PHIL/TOR.  I think the NY teams are much more serious, I'd place the Sox odds of landing Soto (if they're serious) at 25%

I actually like those odds, I just hope they're serious if they don't land Soto and still go out and acquire pitching. If the Sox miss out on Soto, but made a real offer but ended the offseason with a couple major pitching upgrades I think fans would still be very excited for next season and happy with ownership (for a change). 

[Hugh2]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Why bring in Adames when Mayer, Campbell and others are ready and willing in AAA? Use the money on actual needs rather than just whoever is sitting in FA. 

I wonder how they're truly feel about Mayer and his injury concerns.  Between him and Story I think there's still some uncertainty with the position.  

I also wonder, if Devers does move off of 3B if they seek to fill one of the SS/3B positions internally and fill the other with Adames.  How is Story's arm? I know Mayer has a strong arm but I'm not sure they'd want to move him off SS before his career even begins.  

It's probably not realistic that they' move Story or Mayer to 3rd and play Adames at SS.   But that would make the infield defense really really really good again with Campbell at 2nd.  It would help guys like Bello a lot and they'd get more out of a guy like Fried who induces a lot of groundballs I believe. 

He's a RHB, and I wonder if he's part of their plan B if they fail to land Soto.  I'm not in love with it, but I'd like it better than a trade for Arenado (unless of course for some mind boggling reason they'd be willing to take on Yoshida). 

[Hugh2]

13 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

If that's very far apart, it's time to move on.  I thought Soto was looking for 12/14 years at $45 million.  

I wonder how far apart they really are.  That's record money and insane.  They could just be trying to get the best offer possible, which may mean more money than $632 but how much more? maybe $650 moves them across the finish line. 

[notin]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Why bring in Adames when Mayer, Campbell and others are ready and willing in AAA? Use the money on actual needs rather than just whoever is sitting in FA. 

Why is Campbell an option at 3b?  He’s player all of 5 games there in his career, and per Soxprospects, his arm is “passable” there but better suited for 2b.  Forcing a hitter into a position he’s ill-equipped to play is how bad defenses are built.

I’m fine with some other internal options at 3b.  But I think the Sox can do better than Campbell there…

[FredLynn]

3 hours ago, Matthew Lenz said:

While we were enjoying our Thanksgiving rumors were swirling about the Red Sox and Juan Soto. If you filter through the noise, one credible source provided details on the Red Sox offer to superstar Juan Soto.

Baseball Twitter was quick to react to Gomez's information -- mostly trying to discredit the insider. Gomez fired back with a reminder from 2022 when he was in on the Rafael Devers extension.

Bottom-line: Gomez is a very credible source in the industry and there's no reason to think he would share information that wasn't vetted.

The ~$48 million AAV would put him as the highest or 2nd highest in baseball depending on how you consider Shohei Ohtani's heavily deferred contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

What are your thoughts on the offer?

 

View full rumor

 

I believe that Henry is all talk (remember "full throttle"?). He isn't going to shell out that kind of money for Soto or for anyone else. Unfortunately the Flops are going to have to pay a premium now to obtain top flight FA talent. Boston is not a desired destination. The players know that Henry is on a cost cutting mission and they are in it, for the most part, to get paid. 

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I wonder how they're truly feel about Mayer and his injury concerns.  Between him and Story I think there's still some uncertainty with the position.  

I also wonder, if Devers does move off of 3B if they seek to fill one of the SS/3B positions internally and fill the other with Adames.  How is Story's arm? I know Mayer has a strong arm but I'm not sure they'd want to move him off SS before his career even begins.  

It's probably not realistic that they' move Story or Mayer to 3rd and play Adames at SS.   But that would make the infield defense really really really good again with Campbell at 2nd.  It would help guys like Bello a lot and they'd get more out of a guy like Fried who induces a lot of groundballs I believe. 

He's a RHB, and I wonder if he's part of their plan B if they fail to land Soto.  I'm not in love with it, but I'd like it better than a trade for Arenado (unless of course for some mind boggling reason they'd be willing to take on Yoshida). 

If Adames is a Plan B for Soto, it's a horrible plan to begin with.

[Bellhorn04]

9 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I actually like those odds, I just hope they're serious if they don't land Soto and still go out and acquire pitching. If the Sox miss out on Soto, but made a real offer but ended the offseason with a couple major pitching upgrades I think fans would still be very excited for next season and happy with ownership (for a change). 

Hard to say.  If the Yankees sign Soto and there are indications the Sox had a chance with one last bump but declined (think A-Rod situation), there could still be much grumbling.  

[Hugh2]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

If Adames is a Plan B for Soto, it's a horrible plan to begin with.

Well yes, but it does something entirely different that helps the team in other ways.  Adames is no Soto, but he's a good RHH bat who adds plus defense in the infield, which should play into their offseason plans of upgrading the pitching. 

[Hugh2]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Hard to say.  If the Yankees sign Soto and there are indications the Sox had a chance with one last bump but declined (think A-Rod situation), there could still be much grumbling.  

True, and I think there will be grumbling no matter what. 

If the Sox sign Soto, there are going to be people very unhappy with the amount of money spent who will think the Sox grossly overspent. 

[notin]

22 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

If that's very far apart, it's time to move on.  I thought Soto was looking for 12/14 years at $45 million.  

He was.  Until someone offered it.  Now he’s looking for more.

 

Soto’s like anyone else.   Once he finds what he’s looking for, he stops looking for it and moves on…

[Hugh2]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Why is Campbell an option at 3b?  He’s player all of 5 games there in his career, and per Soxprospects, his arm is “passable” there but better suited for 2b.  Forcing a hitter into a position he’s ill-equipped to play is how bad defenses are built.

I’m fine with some other internal options at 3b.  But I think the Sox can do better than Campbell there…

I'm not sure Campbell has the arm for 3B, I don't think it's horrible there but I think they can do better.  I think Kristian fitts best in 2nd on this team.  I've seen him play SS, and it's not horrible. 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If Adames is a Plan B for Soto, it's a horrible plan to begin with.

Adames isn’t horrible, but he isn’t Soto either.

 

From the names on the market, Adames is one of the better fits.  Who are the other Plan B options? Bregman? Alonso? Teoscar?

[Hugh2]

1 minute ago, notin said:

He was.  Until someone offered it.  Now he’s looking for more.

 

Soto’s like anyone else.   Once he finds what he’s looking for, he stops looking for it and moves on…

I've always assume everyone has a "buy now price" and until someone reaches that they're going with the highest bidder.  Everyone keeps throwing around that $700 million dollar price, maybe theres something to that, maybe that number has come out of camp Boras.  I'd be comfortable going up to $640-$650 and just pointing out to Boras that is equivalent to being paid $700 million in NYC. 

If the Sox did a good job on selling him on the city of Boston, perhaps that is enough.