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New report reveals Juan Soto met with New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner over summer
By Matt Higgins,
17 hours ago
This might give New York Yankees fans hope that Juan Soto will be staying in the Bronx for years to come.
The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty reports that Soto met with team owner Hal Steinbrenner in July. The previously unreported meeting occurred in July at Yankee Stadium.
A source told The Athletic the meeting centered around Soto’s experience with the Yankees so far. According to the source, the two talked about, “How has he enjoyed his time with the team? What could the Yankees do to enhance the experience of playing for them from the standpoint of a player new to the team?” Kuty writes.
“It was good to get to know the owner,” Soto told The Athletic in an interview. “Get to see what he’s thinking about me and everything.”
The Yankees traded pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe, and Randy Vasquez, and catcher Kyle Higashioka, to the San Diego Padres for Soto and outfielder Trent Grisham prior to the 2024 season.
Soto is having a stellar season in his walk year. Heading into Friday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Soto is hitting .288, with a .990 OPS, 177 OPS+, 41 home runs, 108 runs batted in, 128 runs scored, and has accumulated a 7.9 WAR (wins above replacement).
“I think anybody would want to be in the history books for the Yankees,” Soto explained to The Athletic. “I’ve been trying all year to be part of it — at least even if it’s for one year. I’m trying my best to be around those books with the World Series champions. But we’ll see. We will see how it’s going to be. At the end of the day, you never know if you’re going to be there.”
Soto could’ve been well on his way to his first Most Valuable Player award if it wasn’t for teammate Aaron Judge’s historic season.
Prior to their meeting in July, Steinbrenner talked to Soto during spring training.
“It’s always good to see (an owner) coming over at least to say hi, see how we’re doing, what we have in mind, this and that. It’s great to have an owner that really cares for players,” Soto told The Athletic.
Soto’s deal could easily surpass a half-billion dollars, but will most likely fall short of Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers — the biggest contract in professional sports history. The Athletic’s Tim Britton projects Soto’s next deal could be in the 14-year, $560 million range.
Hal Steinbrenner’s previous comments about Juan Soto
Credit: Jessica Alcheh-Imagn Images
In May, Steinbrenner said he wanted the 25-year-old superstar to stay with the Yankees for the “rest of his career.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt of that,” Steinbrenner said, via MLB.com . “His agent, Scott [Boras], doesn’t tend to normally do deals in the middle of a season. Neither do I. I think it can be a distraction. But as I said in Spring Training when I met with [the media], this is a unique situation and a very unique player. So, I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a conversation or two had possibly during the course of the season.
“I think it’s worth doing at some point. I wanted to give Juan time to really settle in, have a conversation with him at some point and make sure that obviously the most important thing is, is this a place he can see himself for a long time?”
Steinbrenner added that Soto is a “generational” talent.
“He’s the complete package. I had no doubts he would perform here under pressure; zero doubts with that. I was curious to see how he’d interact with the fans, how he would interact with the media, and of course how he would interact with the rest of the players, and it’s just been great, great and great on those three things. … We’ve seen the animated side of him as well. He’s fun to watch.”
The Washington Nationals sent Soto to the Padres at the 2022 MLB trade deadline after he turned down a 15-year, $440 million extension.
Soto bet on himself and won. He will easily make $100 million more than what the Nationals offered.
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