If the Shohei Ohtani free agency saga from last offseason is any indication, Juan Soto may be closing in on a decision soon. The Japanese superstar signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on December 9, which coincidentally lines up with the start of the Winter Meetings this year.
After taking meetings with numerous teams to this point, ESPN's Buster Olney reported that Soto's camp, helmed by super-agent Scott Boras, has started to field formal offers from interested teams this week.
Sources involved in the Juan Soto talks expect the teams will begin forwarding offers this week. To date, the process has been about Soto meeting with teams/club officials, and about those officials getting to know Soto.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 24, 2024
As Olney points out, this doesn't mean that Soto is going to make a decision immediately, but it is an important step in the process as he gets a sense of what teams are offering and which teams are willing to pay top dollar for his services.
If the only thing that matters to you is Soto picking a team, there is no resolution at this point. If you care about the process, which takes place over weeks, it's an important step.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 24, 2024
In the public sphere, it is known that the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Blue Jays have all met with Soto and Boras in some capacity. The Phillies have been rumored as a dark-horse threat, though they apparently haven't been in contact with Soto's camp at all thus far.
Other teams, including the Giants, Rays, and Royals have all reached out to Soto, but it isn't clear if they've taken any meetings with him. The latter two franchises almost certainly can't afford his hypothetical $600 million price tag, while the Giants are operating with an entirely new front office this offseason.
Other big-market teams, like the Cubs, Angels, Astros, Rangers, and Braves have not been mentioned in any rumors despite having payrolls in the top-half of the league.
Soto holding up the market, especially for Boras's other clients
Soto, a career .285/.421/.532 hitter who's been 60% better than the league-average batter by OPS+, is the free agent who is holding up the market right now. The Angels just signed Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year, $63 million deal, though they've really been the only active team thus far, and that's the largest contract that's been handed out all offseason.
Boras has made a habit out of instructing his players to hold out until the deepest parts of the offseason for the best possible deals, though that came back to bite him badly last year when he controlled the top four players on the board. Each of Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and Jordan Montgomery had to settle for below-market deals, with the latter firing Boras in April.
Soto should be immune to being frozen out of the high-end of free agency thanks to his prodigious talents, though teams correctly called Boras's bluff last year. It'll be interesting to see how quickly he lets Soto sign, since he also has to represent Snell, Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, and Corbin Burnes (among others) in negotiations this winter.
Regardless, it appears that the Soto sweepstakes could be coming to an end soon. If one of the deep-pocketed teams makes an offer for the 26-year-old outfielder that catches his camp's eye, he could be on a new team before the Winter Meetings even begin on December 9.