MLB Insider Believes Yankees, Mets Playoff Runs Determine Juan Soto Race

Juan Soto headlines the free agent market in Major League Baseball this winter and could stay in The Big Apple in one way or another. The New York Yankees and New York Mets could find themselves in a spending competition for the services of the generational hitter.

Both teams are quite alive in the postseason with hopes of winning a World Series, what would be the first for the Yankees since 2009 or the first for the Mets since 1986. Like 2000, could a Subway Series be in store for the Fall Classic?

The teams could be playing for more than just a championship and potentially decide the offseason fate of Soto, who enters free agency after the Yankees acquired him from the San Diego Padres last winter.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel shared that a “couple motivated bidders” should drive the market for Soto as his sweepstakes begin after the playoffs.

“I think probably $550-$560 million is probably where I’m gonna land,” McDaniel told ESPN’s Buster Olney on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast. “If the Yankees win, he returns. If the Yankees lose, he goes to the Mets.”

Olney agreed with the sentiment and floated the Mets to win the sweepstakes regardless after an unexpected playoff run.

Soto brought a resurgence in his first and potentially only season with the Yankees, slashing .288/.419/.569 for a .989 OPS with 41 home runs and 109 RBIs.

Both teams remain alive in the playoffs after Mets advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2015. The Yankees look to reach the American League Championship Series for the fourth time in the last eight years.