As Juan Soto’s free agency looms, so does October

NEW YORK — This year’s Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, which doubled as a 2009 championship team reunion, offered a glimpse into a possible future for Juan Soto — one in which he commits to a career in pinstripes, becomes a Yankees legend and returns to the Bronx a hero long after his playing days are over.

More than 30 former New York Yankees mingled with current players, roaming from the clubhouse and dugout to the bowels of the stadium. Soto chatted with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodríguez, CC Sabathia and Jorge Posada, among others who flourished as Yankees, won World Series titles, and finished their playing days here. He eagerly picked their brains. He intently listened to their messages, calling those conversations “great for me and my career.”

In turn, those stars gushed about the 25-year-old superstar.

“It’s been a match made in heaven,” Sabathia said.

Said Posada: “He looks great in pinstripes. I would love to see him here for a long time.”

Soto has thrived in his first year in New York. He is on track to post the best season of his career and has become a fan favorite as the Yankees’ first bonafide Dominican star since Robinson Cano more than a decade ago, slugging alongside Aaron Judge on a nightly basis. His time in the Bronx has, so far, been a rousing success. But even as October and a chance to win a pennant approaches, Soto’s impending free agency continues to hover over it all. This offseason, Soto will face the most important decision of his life: Will he be in attendance for the next Old Timers’ Day or one-and-done in the Bronx?

In May, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said he would be open to signing Soto to a contract extension during the season, adding that he wants to see Soto in pinstripes “for the rest of his career.” But that was always unlikely — Scott Boras, Soto’s agent, strongly prefers having his players reach free agency.

Soto’s fusion of talent, durability and age — reaching free agency at 26 is a money-making anomaly — is expected to spark a bidding war starting at $500 million. Several big league clubs are likely to engage, perhaps none more aggressively than the crosstown Mets.

“We’ll be on the lookout for the Yankees in the offseason, and we’ll listen to all their offers,” Soto said in Spanish earlier this summer. “And we’ll see what happens.”

In other words: Soto will shop around. But the Yankees can afford to give him the second-richest contract in history behind Shohei Ohtani‘s deal with the Dodgers — and the richest based on present-day value.

Steinbrenner said the club’s $300 million-plus payroll is “not sustainable,” but the Yankees are expected to have at least $80 million coming off the books this offseason, and keeping Soto is atop their to-do list. Their approach to the trade deadline hinted at that. New York ended up adding two players with contracts under team control for the next two seasons: Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Mark Leiter Jr. A day after the deadline, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman noted that the club took future payroll into account when considering possible acquisitions. Saving money for Soto was left unsaid, but every conversation about their star right fielder revolves around wanting him in New York for the rest of his career.

“Of course I want it to be forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But you just try and appreciate it.”

THE BLEACHER CREATURE chants, now a semi-regular occurrence at Yankee Stadium, materialized the day after Old-Timers’ Day, on a steamy August afternoon.

“Re-sign Soto! Re-sign Soto!”

Soto was standing in right field. Judge, his partner in mashing, was stationed in center. The pair playfully acknowledged the serenade. Judge tapped his glove to the rhythm. He cupped his ear for more noise. Soto, smiling, looked over at him, and gestured as if to say, “What can I do?”

In the previous half-inning, Soto and Judge had collaborated on one of the most electrifying sequences in their historic but potentially brief partnership: back-to-back-to-back home runs against the Colorado Rockies. Soto ignited the barrage. Judge went second. Veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton delivered the final bang.

It was the 12th time Soto and Judge homered in the same game this season. They’ve been the most dominant tandem in baseball. But they embarked on their union with a bit of a conundrum.

The pair started the season with a standard, leaping forearm-bash home run celebration, which to them wasn’t good enough. They wanted a personalized handshake to commemorate their long balls. In May, shortstop Anthony Volpe came up with an idea.

“He said we were ‘The Kings of New York,'” Soto said. “So, we did something with that.”

After a few fixes and some practice, Soto and Judge unveiled the final product: Up top and down low three times and a Superman imitation before placing crowns on their heads. No home run celebration has been used more since.

The duo has combined for 89 homers, 13 more than any other pair of teammates in baseball. Judge has a league-leading 51, giving him an outside shot of matching his own American League record of 62. Soto’s 38 are fourth in the majors and a career high.

“He just finds a way to impact the game every single day,” Judge said. “He’s always focused on the team, which is something I always love. Like, he’s here for us and that can be tough when it’s your third team and you’re about to be a free agent.

“Every other day you got another fan yelling from the outfield, ‘Sign a contract, stay here!’ You got other teams, whenever we go play somewhere else — we play in Philly, we play the Mets — you got people saying stuff. Man, it’s a treat. It’s a treat just to see that.”

Soto and Judge have gone back and forth this summer calling each other the greatest hitter in the world. The title firmly belongs to Judge in 2024, but Soto’s résumé, when adjusted for age, is unmatched among current players.

He is a World Series champion, four-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger. He’s won a batting title and a Home Run Derby. His 35.7 fWAR since debuting in May 2018 ranks fourth in the majors behind Judge, Mookie Betts and Francisco Lindor. He is on a first-ballot Hall of Fame trajectory with what is universally considered the best plate discipline in baseball.

This year, Soto, who started in the All-Star Game for the first time, is third in the majors in fWAR — behind Judge and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Only Judge has a better on-base percentage and wRC+. Only Judge has accumulated more walks.

Soto has a 1.029 OPS against right-handed pitchers and a .954 OPS against lefties. He is in the 98th percentile or better across the majors in exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage, chase rate and walk rate, among other categories that make front offices salivate. He’s hit three home runs in a game. His four bunt hits this season are as many or more than five teams have in total. His defense, dismal last season as a left fielder in San Diego, has vastly improved with his return to right field.

Soto has excelled despite playing through forearm and hand injuries, missing just four games this season after playing in all 162 for the Padres in 2023.

“He’s just like a metronome,” Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said. “It’s the same look every day. It’s pretty rare. It’s really hard to do. But it’s a trait that a lot of great players, most great players, have. I think he takes it up to maybe another level. Puts his own kind of flair on it within the game. But he’s just so disciplined off the field.”

A week after the Bleacher Creatures’ debut of their “Re-sign Soto” chant, they made another round of pleas during a win over the St. Louis Cardinals. And again, Soto and Judge looked at each other and smiled. Soto turned and acknowledged them, to thunderous cheers. But when asked about the cheers after the first rendition, Soto redirected the request.

“They have to talk to Cashman,” Soto said with a laugh.

CASHMAN, OF COURSE, is the one responsible for acquiring Soto in a seven-player trade with the San Diego Padres last December knowing Soto was one year from free agency. The Yankees were willing to take the risk because they believed he was an ideal fit for a lineup desperate for a strong left-handed-hitting presence. That he would be a Dominican superstar in the city with the largest Dominican population in the United States was icing on the cake. So far, it’s been a seamless fit.

Soto’s family often visits from the Dominican Republic; his father (also Juan José) is a frequent presence on the field at Yankee Stadium before games, usually accompanied by friends or relatives. He sometimes carries a camera to snap pictures. Soto also has a personal content creator — hired by his camp — who occasionally travels here from Santo Domingo.

He has an aunt in Manhattan and an uncle in the Bronx. He attended Knicks and Rangers playoff games with teammates in the spring. He went to an Aventura concert and recently appeared at the US Open in Flushing. But Soto resides in a suburb about 40 minutes from Yankee Stadium and said the grind of the season has not allowed for much exploration.

“I’ve enjoyed the area where I live,” Soto said. “I’ve gone around a bit and done some things and seen how everything is. But, to be honest, the city itself, I haven’t enjoyed it too much because I haven’t come down much.”

That hasn’t been necessary to make Yankee Stadium feel like home. Soto’s penchant for the stage has resonated with the franchise’s notoriously unforgiving fans, whose adoration is exhibited before every home game, when Soto jogs out to right field, gestures a hug to the Bleacher Creatures, bows and points to his chest. More often than not, a Dominican flag can be spotted. Every single time there’s a roar.

“It’s a fan base that’s a little different,” Soto said. “I think it’s a fan base that wants to win, that is very proud. I would say it’s fun, but it’s also a challenge. You have to produce on the field. If not, you know what’s coming.”

Soto has produced, but he has also infused the Yankees with a unique blend of swagger, maturity and craftsmanship that has been embraced in the Bronx.

He rankles pitchers with intense stares and his trademark Soto Shuffle, an exaggerated reaction to pitches out of the strike zone he birthed in the minor leagues to inspire confidence. He playfully trash-talks catchers. He is the kind of player you love to have on your side and loathe to face. Tim Hill knows.

The left-handed middle reliever with the funky delivery has been Soto’s teammate the past three seasons — first with the Padres and now with the Yankees. Before that, in 2021, he faced Soto three times. Soto struck out in each at-bat. The one-on-one battles resonated.

“He swings and you flinch,” Hill said with a laugh. “It’s just a cat-and-mouse game that I happen to come out on top of. He gets his A-swing off every single time. Even in two-strike counts. Like I would throw the four-seam up and he swings through it, but I swear I could feel the frickin’ wind from the swing. I’m exaggerating a little bit, obviously, but you feel it.

“I remember his shuffle. He shuffled on me ball one and it pissed me off a little bit. I actually love the way he plays mind tricks with the pitcher because I remember it worked against me. It made me mad. And I was like, ‘Ugh!’ I wanted to get him. And I happened to. But also I think he baits guys, in a way getting in a pissing contest with him. Like, ‘All right, you want this?’ And then they’ll throw it, and he frickin’ whacks it out of the yard.”

The gamesmanship has evolved to include catchers. Conversations between hitters and catchers, especially familiar foes, are common. But Soto takes the interactions to another level.

“He’ll say, ‘What are you going to call now? If the pitch is there again, I’m going to hit it out,'” Mets backup catcher Luis Torrens said in Spanish. “If he doesn’t agree with a called strike, he’ll say, ‘No, that pitch was a ball.’ And he’ll go, ‘It’s OK, I’ll give it to him, I’ll give it to the pitcher.’ His confidence is unbelievable. His mentality is he’s going to talk and deliver.”

Torrens spent spring training this season with the Yankees and got to know Soto. He learned the banter comes from a competitive place. So he wasn’t surprised when in July, Soto crushed a 443-foot home run off Mets left-hander Sean Manaea and instantaneously turned around to smile at Francisco Alvarez before beginning his trot.

“It’s part of my game,” Soto said. “In the end, I say that at home plate you have to play it like a game of chess. Always have your strategy, try to see what they have in mind and work from there. I don’t know if they’re scared, but it’s part of me managing my confidence at the plate. Moving my pieces. Trying to see what is the weak spot to attack.”

Boone was in his first season at the helm when Soto made his Yankee Stadium debut in June 2018, as a 19-year-old rookie on a veteran Washington Nationals team with World Series aspirations. He had heard about Soto from his father, Bob, who had been with the Nationals’ front office since 2005.

“I remember him always saying, ‘Juan Soto is the guy and he’s ready now,'” Boone said. “He was in like A-ball, Double-A. He said, ‘This guy is different.'”

Soto, who had zoomed from A-ball to the majors before the end of May, arrived for his first Bronx experience as a platoon player. He wasn’t in the lineup in the series opener because Sabathia, a left-hander, started on the mound for the Yankees. Soto watched the Nationals lose 3-0.

The next night, Soto batted seventh and played left field. He walked in his first at-bat against right-hander Sonny Gray. Two innings later, he sliced a go-ahead three-run moonshot home run down the left-field line. Three innings after that, he annihilated a fastball from left-hander Chasen Shreve, 436 feet over the Yankees’ bullpen for a go-ahead solo homer.

“That was a freakin’ bomb to right-center,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez recalled earlier this summer. “I was like, ‘Wow.’ I’ll tell you what impressed me most: Nothing seems to faze him no matter where he’s at.”

With the blasts, Soto became the youngest player since Ken Griffey Jr. to hit two home runs at Yankee Stadium. It was obvious he thrived in that setting — so obvious, teammate Gio Gonzalez, a veteran starting pitcher, made a prediction that night.

“Gio told me, ‘Enjoy it, because you’re going to be a Yankee one day,'” Soto said. “‘This is going to be your house.'”

SOON, SOTO WILL decide if 2024 was a temporary stay.

Two years ago, he turned down a 15-year, $440 million offer — without deferrals — from the Nationals, prompting the team to trade him to the Padres for a haul of prospects that summer. Now, he and Boras will be looking for far more.

“I let him do his thing in his area, and I do it in mine,” Soto said of Boras. “I think that’s the best way to do it. I’m intelligent in my playing field, in everything I do. And he’s intelligent in his area. So I think that’s how we’ve done it and we’ve felt very comfortable with how we’ve done it.”

The Mets loom as the Yankees’ strongest competition, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Mets owner Steve Cohen’s deep pockets and burning desire to win could upend the bidding war.

The Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers are among the other clubs that could make calls. The Nationals would love a reunion, according to people with knowledge of the situation, but it would take ownership allocating more money for Soto than they were previously willing to offer.

Two years ago, Judge faced a similar decision: Remain a Yankee for life, or play elsewhere. Like Soto, Judge had a career season with the Yankees heading into free agency, surpassing Roger Maris’ mark of 61 home runs established in 1961. Knowing the weight on Soto’s shoulders, Judge said he has been mindful of avoiding discussing free agency since the spring.

“I just kind of talked to him early on and said, ‘Hey, just do your thing. There’s going to be a lot of noise, but you play your game, you do what you can. All that stuff’s going to work out at the end,'” Judge said. “And we kind of just left it at that because I know how it was when I was going through it. I didn’t want somebody bringing it up every single day. I didn’t want somebody to bring it up every month. After a good month bringing it up, after a bad month bringing it up. It’s just, ‘Go do your thing.'”

In the meantime, Soto and Judge have at least the rest of this month of baseball together — and they hope to make a run in October. It’s been five years since Soto’s Fall Classic debut, and this year he’d like to bring Judge along with him.

In 2019, Soto’s World Series began with a strikeout against Cole, then a Houston Astro, in the first inning. Three innings later, he blasted a 96-mph fastball up and away to the railroad track beyond the wall in left-center field at Minute Maid Park.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s never happened before,'” Cole said. “I don’t think anyone has hit a pitch like that.”

In Game 6, in response to Alex Bregman homering and carrying his bat all the way to first base, Soto carried his bat to first base after smashing a fastball from Justin Verlander to the second deck. It was both petty and heady. His talent, and brashness, were on full display. His shuffle captivated the national audience every night. The Nationals won the series in seven games.

“It’s a guy that’s been there, done that,” Judge said. “He’s played in big moments, played in big games. And I think that’s what it really comes down to. You see a lot of these teams over the years that have won, they got guys that have been in big moments.

“Look at the Rangers last year, you add a guy like Corey Seagerhe wins his second World Series MVP and he’s been in those big moments. You gotta have those guys that are cool, calm and collected in those big moments and he’s definitely one of those guys.”

Now Soto and Judge are looking to create their own chapter with a championship ending. It might be their only chance.

“Who doesn’t want to be part of Yankees history?” Soto said. “I think the only way to be part of Yankees history is being a champion.”