Hal Steinbrenner wants to have a relationship with Juan Soto similar to the one he has with Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. The owner of the New York Yankees also stressed the team’s commitment to improving its roster if the star free-agent outfielder stays with the team.
Steinbrenner mentioned that the Yankees’ group at Monday’s meeting included team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, and senior advisor for baseball operations Omar Minaya.
“We had a good meeting. It was a very honest back-and-forth dialogue, a couple hours long,” Steinbrenner said on Wednesday.
When asked how confident he was about keeping Soto, Steinbrenner responded, “No idea. We’ll be in the mix. I’ll leave it at that.”
“We listen to our fans, right? Our fans really enjoyed having him in New York,” Steinbrenner added. “He is definitely a significant part of why we got to the World Series. So, I’ve got ears. I know what’s expected of me.”
The meeting lasted about two hours and took place at a hotel near Newport Beach, California, close to the office of Soto’s agent, Scott Boras. A person familiar with the meeting spoke on condition of anonymity since the details were not made public.
Soto was traded to the Yankees from San Diego last December, and the team reached the World Series for the first time since 2009.
“We didn’t get to know each other that well,” Steinbrenner said. “I was told that he is someone that when he’s in the clubhouse, he is in a zone like no other, and with players like that, I just don’t like interrupting that process and pulling somebody aside, dragging them into Boone’s office and having conversations.
But we did talk about that in California and should he be back next year, I made it clear that the kind of relationship I would like is the kind of relationship I have with Gerrit (Cole) and with Aaron Judge.”
Soto is also meeting with other teams, and talks about his financial terms are expected to begin next week. The Yankees entered the postseason with a $311 million payroll, second behind the Mets at $332 million.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo, second baseman Gleyber Torres, left fielder Alex Verdugo, and reliever Clay Holmes also became free agents, which has lowered the Yankees’ payroll commitments.
“We’re in a better starting position than we were a year ago. There’s no doubt about that,” Steinbrenner said. “Year after year after year after year, payrolls similar to this year and the luxury taxes they produce are not sustainable, not feasible, and that’s the case for the vast majority of owners, maybe all the owners, year after year after year. It doesn’t mean in any given year I can’t do what I want to do. We’ve got the ability to sign any player we want to sign.”
