Red Sox hope to meet with Soto again

There’s a good chance by this time next week Juan Soto will have chosen his target. As the star outfielder considers multiple offers starting at $600 million, the top of the market awaits.

At least one team is hoping for another meeting with Soto and agent Scott Boras. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reports that Red Sox leadership has expressed interest in having another meeting where Soto’s camp would identify the price needed to complete a deal. This is to prevent you from unknowingly being outbid in the end.

It seems the Sox are mostly worried about the Mets. Speier writes that Sox leadership heard rumors that Mets owner Steve Cohen promised Boras that he would beat another team’s best offer by $50 million. To be clear: Speier is not Reporting the veracity of this rumor itself. Speier neither confirms nor denies that Cohen made such an offer. The Globe’s report simply mentions that the Sox are concerned enough about the rumor could However, they hope to get Soto and Boras to name a specific price.

It’s not clear if Boras and Soto are interested. For Soto, it’s about playing the teams’ insecurities against each other. While divulging the details of each offer to every team in the race would ultimately result in the highest bidder being awarded, it would also limit the possibility of one club going far beyond what’s on the table from the others.

There appeared to be five legitimate suitors for Soto: the Mets, Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Dodgers. Various reports have pegged the Dodgers as underdogs. The general view is that Los Angeles entered the mix primarily to gauge whether Soto’s market might not materialize quite the way he envisioned. With multiple teams posting offers worth over $600 million, this is not the case. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote last night that it was unlikely the Dodgers would sign him.

Speier confirms that the Red Sox recently increased their offer to $600 million. The Athletic reported Tuesday that every team that still had a chance at Soto had met or exceeded that mark. (That doesn’t necessarily mean that all five teams mentioned above have offered $600 million or more, as it’s possible he’s privately narrowed the field to exclude one or more of them.) Most observers are still leaving assumes it comes down to one of the New York franchises, although the Sox and Jays appear to have gone to great lengths to insert themselves into the conversation.

One big spender that made little effort for Soto: the Phillies. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports that the Philadelphia folks never met with his camp. While the Phils haven’t shied away from pursuing expensive free agents, they never seem to have believed they had a realistic chance of signing Soto. Philadelphia owner John Middleton said a month ago that he felt they were simply being used to further Soto’s bid for a contract with one of the New York teams (link via Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer). Regardless of whether that would have been the case or not, Gelb wrote that the Phillies felt it best to prioritize other options they felt were more realistic.