New York Mets Viewed as ‘Biggest Threat’ to Sign Yankees’ Juan Soto

Majority New York Mets fans are probably rooting for the team that beat them in the NLCS to win the 2024 World Series.

At first glance this sounds absurd. But when you consider that this team (the Los Angeles Dodgers) is playing the Mets’ rival New York Yankees in the Fall Classic, this pro-Dodgers sentiment starts to make more sense.

Not only are the Mets faithful likely rooting for Los Angeles because it robs them of potential bragging rights, but many analysts are convinced that if the Yankees win the World Series, it will likely mean that superstar slugger Juan Soto – who will become an unrestricted free agent and demand a lot of money this off-season — will remain in the Bronx.

Regardless of World Series results, October 25 article by Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Mets will continue to be a major player in securing Soto’s services.

“The Mets are not yet officially in the Juan Soto Sweepstakes, and cross-city competition is already heating up. A few weeks before the start of the expected derby, a Yankees executive fired the opening salvo,” Heyman wrote.

“To go from the Yankees to the Mets … is a stunning development,” Heyman quoted the Yankees executive as saying, before adding: “The Yankees, who, unsurprisingly, are making Juan Soto their top priority this winter, logically assume that – The Mets’ rise as their biggest derby threat for this winter’s top free agent.

“Supposedly the Yankees have only increased their chances of keeping Soto by reaching the World Series for the first time in 15 years—with a lot of support from Soto himself, of course—but they can see a threat eight miles to the south and east,” he continued .

Heyman later noted that Mets owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to spend big money on Soto made them a serious threat. While it may require an offer Soto simply can’t resist convincing him to leave the Yankees, there are signs that Cohen is willing to make such an offer if necessary.