Los Angeles Dodgers are sticking to their plan not to overspend to acquire Juan Soto, and all for a good reason: they do not want to humiliate their Japanese star Shohei Ohtani.
The derisory amount that the winner of the Shohei Ohtani impersonator contest took home
The site DailyMail.com claimed that despite the initial interest of the Angels in signing the Japanese slugger, over time they have been giving up and apparently will remain only as contenders in the “battle” to secure the services of the Dominican and free agent.
Soto is looking for a contract worth $600 million, and the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees themselves, with whom Soto played and reached the World Series, are in the fight to sign the 26-year-old Puerto Rican.
Prior to the start of the 2024 season, the Dodgers gave the largest contract for a professional sportsman in the world by signing him for ten years and $700 million.
“The Dodgers had the best chance to get Juan at first, but the team doesn’t want to spend more money on Juan than on Shohei,” a source said. “They feel that would humiliate Shohei, because the Dodgers consider him their most important signing.”
“The Dodgers don’t want to offer more money for a player than they offered Shohei, and they’re promoting with Juan the great opportunity to win multiple World Series that the financial gains,” the source added.
Boston leading the hunt for Juan Soto
For now, it seems that Boston will be the front-runner to sign Soto, despite the fact that the Dominican wants to stay with the Bronx Bombers.
“The Red Sox are the favorites for his services, because they are the ones who offer the most money and are always in the conversation to be winners,” the source continued.
“Juan is giving the Yankees every opportunity to make him an offer he can’t refuse, but it looks like Boston will be the one to offer him more years and more money; plus, he would be the face of the team, which is something he’s very interested in.
Juan enjoyed his time in New York and would like to stay there, either by returning to the Yankees or going to the Mets. In his heart he wants to stay with the Yankees, but as this is a business, Boston and the Mets have the best chance of signing him.
“Signing with the Mets or Red Sox instantly makes them his team, if he signs with the Yankees it is still team and there is a lot of stress playing with the Yankees, because the important thing is to win, if not, it is a failure,” the source explained.
The Blue Jays do not give up
Toronto still has a chance to sign the Dominican, but it is an uphill battle to do so and get him to cross the northern border into Canada.
“Signing with the Blue Jays would only work if they offered him an astronomical payday: more than $700 million, because with exchange rates, it’s just not an attractive place because he’d be leaving tons of money on the table.
“In addition, Toronto probably couldn’t hire other players to help the team be a winner,” he concluded.