Juan Soto Rumors: Blue Jays visit, Red Sox advantage, Dodgers' pursuit

We're now into mid-November. GM Meetings have come and gone, and trades and signings have slowly started to trickle in. The MLB offseason is fully up and running, and this year that can only mean one thing: Juan Soto Watch is officially on.

Soto is the first domino to fall this winter, a 26-year-old superstar who all the game's biggest spenders hope to sign to a contract that will likely shatter records once the ink is dry. And it seems like the baseball world won't have to wait too long to make a decision: Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, are hosting teams for individual meetings in Southern California as we speak, with Soto expected to sign not too long after.

Where might he wind up? And what's the latest as the baseball world watches and waits for Soto's decision? Let's dive in.

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Juan Soto rumors: Blue Jays complete their first visit

First the Boston Red Sox, now the Toronto Blue Jays get their chance to be the AL East rival who woos Soto away from the New York Yankees. According to the New York Post's Jon Heyman, Toronto leadership had an in-person meeting with Soto this week, and it seems like things went pretty well.

Much like Boston's visit earlier this week, it's likely that these were just preliminary discussions — a chance for the two sides to get to know each other and feel each other out without exchanging contract proposals just yet. We know that Soto is most concerned with a team's ability to develop talent and consistently devote the necessary resources to winning, and this is Toronto's opportunity to prove that they can check both boxes.

Whether they actually can remains to be seen. This team finished in last place in the AL East this season, after all, and they have some serious work to do this offseason. Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are entering their final years of team control, and Toronto's farm system has ranked in the bottom half of the league for a while now. We know from last year's pursuit of Shohei Ohtani that Rogers Communication can pony up when they want to, but whether Ross Atkins can sell Soto on a long-term vision is a dicier question.

Juan Soto rumors: Red Sox have a hidden advantage?

The Red Sox have been gathering momentum in the Soto sweepstakes of late, culminating in a pitch from Dominican legend David Ortiz and a positive in-person meeting this week. With a ton of money to spend and a crop of elite prospects on the cusp of the Majors, it's not hard to see the case for Boston as a Soto sleeper.

One other reason the outfielder might consider a move to Boston? Getting to call Fenway Park home. Yankee Stadium has the short porch, but it's actually a pretty pitcher-friendly park everywhere else, which depresses the impact of an all-fields hitter like Soto. Fenway, meanwhile, is something of the opposite: tough on pull-happy lefties, but a dream for hitters who can spray line drives off the Green Monster. Look at this graphic and tell me Soto couldn't threaten .400 playing 81 games a year in this park.

This obviously won't be the first thing on Soto's mind when making his decision, but it can't hurt.

Juan Soto rumors: Just how interested are the Dodgers?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have loomed over Soto's free agency since embarrassing the Yankees in the World Series. L.A. just threw $700 million at Shohei Ohtani, but the heavy deferrals in that deal mean that the Dodgers might still be able to find enough to pay Soto as well. (These are the Dodgers, after all; money is never really an object.)

But while they technically could make a run at Soto, it doesn't sound like they're particularly motivated. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote this week that the Dodgers “won’t chase after Soto,” which would seemingly put them behind more desperate teams like the Yankees and New York Mets unless Soto really, really wants to live in L.A.

And for as fun as it is to imagine Soto joining a superteam out West, you can understand why the Dodgers would balk at a certain price point. Ohtani is ensconced as the team's DH, which could become a problem as Soto ages out of right field (a position he already struggles with). Given how much work L.A. needs to do with its starting rotation this winter, it makes more sense to try and keep Teoscar Hernandez around while shelling out for Corbin Burnes and/or Max Fried rather than dedicating a big chunk of the budget to Soto and figuring the rest out later. So 29 other fan bases can exhale, or so we think.