Wed, Dec 11, 2024 page6

• Soto’s record deal lifts Mets’ hopes

  • AFP, NEW YORK
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  Dominican slugger Juan Soto’s 15-year deal worth a record US$765 million has turned the New York Mets from a punchline to a club with punching power.

  Soto’s reported deal, the largest in North American professional sports history, has yet to be confirmed, reportedly because a final physical has not been taken, but the free agent move by Soto, who played for the New York Yankees last season, has already excited Mets fans and soured supporters of their Bronx-based rivals.

  A joke on the US television show Saturday Night Live had Soto considering the Mets only as a charity move to help the needy, but less than 24 hours later, Soto had signed a rich deal and the Mets were seen as championship contenders.

  

  Juan Soto of the New York Yankees takes off his batting gloves after grounding out against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York on Oct. 28.

  Photo: AP

  A bidding war for Soto came down to the Yankees, who reached the World Series for the first time since 2009 with Soto in the lineup, and the Mets, who won their first playoff series since 2015, but lost to the eventual champions the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

  In the end, Mets owners Steve and Alexandra Cohen outspent Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, and 26-year-old outfielder Soto is to shift from Yankee Stadium to Citi Field and the American League to the National League.

  The National League will not be unfamiliar territory for Soto, who won a World Series crown in 2019 with the Washington Nationals, who traded him in 2022 to the San Diego Padres, who traded Soto to the Yankees in December last year.

  NBA Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell, a long-time Mets fan whose father works for the club, posted a photo on social media of Soto smiling and making a peace sign shortly after reports of the deal became public.

  Soto’s deal would eclipse the US$700 million record MLB contract for 10 years that the Los Angeles Dodgers signed with Japanese star Shohei Ohtani in December last year.

  The Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox were other clubs that had reportedly been in the bidding for the Dominican star.

  Soto batted .288 last season for the Yankees with 41 home runs, 109 runs batted in and 129 walks.

  Soto’s first chance to play against the Yankees will come when the Mets visit Yankee Stadium on May 16 to open a three-game series.

  Soto joins a Mets that fell two wins shy of reaching the World Series for the first time since 2015. The new goal will be winning a World Series, something the Mets have not accomplished since 1986.

  For the Yankees, who had made keeping Soto a top off-season priority, the focus shifted to other free-agent possibilities, including first baseman Pete Alonso or outfielders Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Santander.
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