Brian Cashman reveals unfortunate truth from Yankees-Juan Soto negotiations

Before we officially move on from all things Juan Soto — we're still at the mercy of updates that have trickled down from new reports — this is probably the last tidbit New York Yankees (and all baseball fans) should be aware of.

In the end, the Yankees lost the bidding. Steve Cohen and the Mets offered $5 million more guaranteed, one fewer year, and an additional $45 million in escalators (in addition to off-the-field perks). Great. Soto got what he wanted. He's happy.

But in terms of those criticizing the Yankees for not going the extra mile or blowing by Cohen ... they never had the opportunity to do so. At least, that's what Brian Cashman relayed at the Winter Meetings when he was asked about the negotiations.

Scott Boras apparently kept this one close to the vest. Teams were instructed to submit offers and were told whether or not they were in a good spot or if they needed to go higher, without any specific knowledge of the years or money.

Perhaps most importantly, which should put this to rest, the Yankees were not afforded the opportunity to match Cohen's offer, which many believed would be the case. Cashman said the Yankees didn't know what Soto's timeline would be, as they were waiting a week for him to make a decision, and then they found out he was leaving without any chance to stop it.

Yankees were not given chance to match Mets' offer to Juan Soto

Previous reports suggested Soto was going to give the Yankees that courtesy to match, knowing how insane the negotiations were probably going to get. Had the Yankees been afforded that opportunity and said "no thanks," then there could have been a reason for some fans to be mad. But it's still hard to express discontent with where the Yankees went. $805 million is a ridiculous number to top, and the Yankees weren't an undeniable juggernaut even with him in the fold. They had other needs. In most fans' eyes, going to the lengths of $760 million was excessive.

One can speculate there might have been some sort of back door deal between Boras and Cohen. After all, Cohen has largely gotten hosed in free agency and has been used as a bargaining chip, outside of retaining his own free agents and offering short-term, high AAV deals to aging players. Soto was Cohen's white whale so he could begin the Mets' transformation. There's a good chance he instructed Boras not to relay specific terms to the Yankees and other suitors while assuring him that his client would be getting the most money possible from the Mets.

This topic will unfortunately linger until the Yankees can put it to rest with a massive free agency/trade spree of their own, or if they perform better than the Mets in each of the next couple seasons. For now, we'll have to deal with the offseason World Series celebrations, and that's fine.

The reality is that the Mets need a lot more than Soto and they haven't made any moves since his singing. If they take their foot off the gas pedal, this big brother-little brother dynamic might not change at all, despite what the fans in Queens think.