New York Rivalry Heats Up: Mets, Yankees Chase Soto
The World Series is over, and that can mean only one thing: it’s time to get mandible deep in reckless speculation.
For those who haven’t paid attention to this offseason’s run-up: Juan Soto, the 26-year-old outfielder on a Hall of Fame trajectory, is unanimously considered to be the best free agent on the market. Soto offers a rare combo of youth and elite production, making him the kind of player any team would be glad to build around. Here’s more, courtesy of our top-25 free-agent rankings:
For the second offseason in a row, these rankings are topped by a future Hall of Famer. Soto is, plainly, one of the five best hitters in the world. He pairs elite plate discipline with elite strength and elite barrel awareness; that triumvirate empowered him to become the first left-handed hitter in nearly two decades to record consecutive seasons in which he recorded at least 35 home runs and walked more than he struck out. How’s this for consistency: Soto has been an everyday big-league player since he was 19 years old, yet he’s never finished a season (no matter his amount of games played) with an OPS+ below 140. The dangdest thing about Soto is that, for as accomplished as he is, next season will represent his age-26 campaign. (To put that into perspective, Yankees catcher Austin Wells just finished his first full big-league season following a reasonably paced development path … and he’s only 260 days younger than Soto.) Nitpick Soto’s defense and question how long he’ll avoid the DH role if you want. Eventually, you must concede that players this skilled, this accomplished, and this young seldom reach free agency. Expect him to get paid in accordance to that reality.
