MLB insider's new Juan Soto contract prediction makes $600M look like child's play

On Wednesday night, a very strange sequence of things began to happen in the Juan Soto chase. Suddenly, surrounding the announcement that Soto and Scott Boras would be taking more meetings over the weekend, prior to a likely Sunday decision, the playing field in the arena of public perception seemed to even.

ESPN's Jeff Passan announced that it was impossible to pick a favorite. Jon Heyman noted (with somewhat of a shrug) that he'd heard whispers Steve Cohen was willing to top any offer, but focused most of his segment on how he felt better about the Yankees' chances than he ever had before. Even the engagement farmers who'd been stumping for the Red Sox all weekend seemed to suggest that the Yankees were emerging as a sentimental favorite.

All of this momentum shifting means nothing, other than that Soto is keeping his preferences extremely close to the vest. Heyman and Passan's reporting would seem to suggest, though, that none of this is settled yet.

Notably, according to Passan's and Buster Olney's ESPN+ primer, published Thursday morning, the Soto camp is really prepared to test the limits of whatever loyalty the Yankees still have towards him. If you thought the reported fleet of $600+ million bids represented a rich tapestry of nearly-even offers, then you're really going to have to stretch your imagination to meet Olney's current theory that bidding will hit the range of $750 million over 15 years.

Juan Soto's contract could react 15 years, $750 million. Um...Yankees?

According to Mark Feinsand, the Yankees will likely be given a chance to match whatever the final bid is for Soto. That makes sense, given their extensive relationship with Scott Boras. It would also seem to indicate that said gigantic final bid would likely come from someone else, either the Mets or Blue Jays (or both!).

The Yankees would (how can I put this) BENEFIT GREATLY from signing literally Juan Soto, the bat that just carried them to the World Series when their captain cratered. They would also have to think long and hard about topping $750 million, at that extravagant length. That type of deal screams either, "He did not go to the Yankees" or "It's a 13-year, $650 million deal with an opt-out that can be voided with two years at $50M per, like Gerrit Cole's deal."

When Cole chose that option, the Yankees scared him into walking back to the team on his original contract. Soto would likely opt out and secure another payday, cutting his Yankees tenure short.

Plenty to think about as the final bidding war reaches the ridiculous heights it was always destined to. There's a difference between topping Shohei Ohtani's $46 million AAV in present-day value and blowing Ohtani's entire contract out of the water.