Juan Soto has been meeting with his suitors in the winter market and after talking with the executives of the Toronto Blue Jays, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets and on Monday the New York Yankees, the next on the list will be the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Soto is the most sought-after free agent of the MLB offseason and according to a source from The Athletic, he will hold a meeting on Tuesday, in a report that was first reported by MLB.com, and will take place in Southern California, at the headquarters established by his agent Scott Boras somewhere near Newport Beach.
The Dodgers are bound to look at the Dominican outfielder, although their lineup seems complete with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and the rest of the lineup, there is always room for talent and they will look to make a competitive offer.
The Dodgers have the budget to compete for Juan Soto
Last offseason, the Dodgers opened the checkbook with a whopping $1.4 billion after signing Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glansow and Teoscar Hernandez. However, the deal with the Japanese two-way star allows them to have flexibility in their budget, as he signed for 10 years and $700 million, but with a deferral with which the Californians have budget to compete in the winter market. Although they will not be able to keep all of them, they also have on their shopping list or Santa Claus letter as their manager Dave Roberts said, other free agents, especially to strengthen the rotation, with Roki Sasaki as a priority. They are also going for Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Max Fried, not counting the homegrown players who could still return: Walker Buehler, Klayton Kershaw and Jack Flaherty.
The big stars are not always available and having the budget, the Dodgers are obliged to get into a competition that will not be easy, because the New York Yankees will want Juan Soto back, but the fact that the New York Mets and their billionaire owner Steve Cohen are in the fight, complicates the aspirations of the rest. In addition, according to his agent Scott Boras, the Dominican aspires to sign a contract of at least $600 million, although he could want to surpass Ohtani’s milestone of $700 million.
