Juan Soto essentially hung up on Yankees after Steve Cohen's godfather offer

The New York Mets signed Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract on Sunday night, out-bidding the Yankees in the process. The Yankees did all they could, even increasing their offer close to the Mets, and adding an extra season of flexibility. It wasn't enough.

Steve Cohen got his man. To be honest, we should've expected this from the beginning. The Mets are Cohen's passion project, and he wasn't about to lose out on the one player who could turn them into a World Series contender.

Soto is a Hall-of-Fame caliber player. When all is said and done, he might be as accomplished as Ted Williams, with the batters' eye of Barry Bonds. Just last season, Soto had an OPS of .989 and 7.9 WAR to boot. That was far from his best campaign in the bigs. The 26-year-old deserves every penny of his deal, and it speaks to the rapidly-increasing value on baseball's biggest stars.

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Juan Soto didn't give the Yankees a chance to match his Mets deal

While the Mets eventually got the final say for Soto, the Yankees assumed they'd get a chance to match. That was not the case, as Soto accepted Cohen's offer without telling Brian Cashman and Co. Typically, if a player is interested in staying with a franchise, they will provide said ownership a chance to match or exceed the offer. Soto did not, per Jon Heyman.

"The Yankees were NOT given a chance to match the Mets’ winning Juan Soto bid. The Yankees had the option to keep bidding of course, but they hit their limit at $760M for 16 years and there was no surety Soto would have stayed a Yankee had they gone even higher," Heyman wrote on X.

I don't blame Soto for choosing the Mets over the Yankees. While the Yankees have an easier path to the World Series for now, the Mets took the World Series champion Dodgers to six games just last season. Mind you, before the 2024 campaign, it was expected the Mets were cutting payroll to prepare for a run at Soto this winter. Instead, they nearly made the Fall Classic.

Soto wants to win, and the Mets and Yankees gave him a chance to do so. He bet on the Mets long term. We'll see if that pans out for him.