What's going on with Yankees-Juan Soto arbitration as deadline remans unclear?

On Wednesday night, if not for a tweet from a Baltimore Orioles beat writer, the baseball world would've been under the assumption that the 2024 arbitration deadline was Friday at 8 p.m. Information was revealed that stated the league agreed A MONTH AGO to move it to Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. This is an important date! The New York Yankees have plenty of these cases to settle, with Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres leading the way.

But then MLB insider Jeff Passan clarified the deadline was actually 1 p.m. on Thursday, not 8 p.m., which pushed up everybody's timeline even further. Naturally, however, that hasn't stopped the confusion.

News has been rather scarce two hours after the 1 p.m. ET "deadline," so many were just wondering if the info/reporting has lagged, much like everything else this offseason.

Well, while that could still be the case, MLB insider Bob Nightengale then provided an update on Soto's situation with the Yankees and said the deadline is actually 8 p.m. ET. How is this so hard?

Either way, the Yankees somehow haven't come to an agreement with Soto, who's probably the easiest case out there. Though he'll be setting an arbitration record with his third-year of eligibility, there really shouldn't be any back and forth.

What's going on with Yankees-Juan Soto arbitration as deadline remans unclear?

Jon Heyman followed this up and said the two sides are still working on a deal and expect to arrive at a deal that will be in excess of $30 million for the 2024 season. The only (reported) disagreement is just how hefty said deal will be. Soto's been a Yankee for over a month now and this very easy standard operating procedure practice will of course blow past the deadline or reach a conclusion right up against it.

Still no word yet on Gleyber Torres, either, who's projected to earn $15 million -- a price tag we're fairly confident the Yankees do not want to pay. Expect a $3-$4 million gap if these two sides need to file and head to a hearing.

The early agreements featured Victor Gonzalez ($860K) and that's it. The Yanks signed Luke Weaver to a one-year, $2 million contract, too, which, of course, took precendent on a day that featured a completely different objective.

Get these over with, for the love of GOD. This is baseball's most exploitative and drawn-out process that badly needs to be amended. Just pay everybody the extra couple million and call it a year.