While the Atlanta Braves have steadily made upgrades this offseason, some teams took the blunt force approach to their roster building. The Dodgers spent an obscene amount of money to land Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto among others. However, the trade that rocked the entire league was the one that sent Juan Soto from the Padres to the Yankees.
Juan Soto's impending free agency has been closely followed for some time now. The only reason that Soto was in San Diego was because he turned down the Nationals' $440 million extension offer and Washington felt that trading him was their best path forward before he left in free agency and left them with nothing.
Flash forward to now and all of the indications are that Soto will still try and test the free agent market with Scott Boras looking to breaking some records with his next deal. Despite the price tag, Soto is going to be very popular if he indeed hits the open market, but one team that will make Braves fans cringe appears to be ready to enter the Soto Derby.
The most interesting thing heard at Mets' camp yesterday -- and it's not surprising, given that the Scherzer contract (and others) will melt off their payroll next winter -- is that they fully intend to take a run at Juan Soto next winter
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) March 6, 2024
Braves News: Mets' rumored pursuit of Juan Soto could spell trouble in 2025
While it is nice that it appears as though Soto could be one and done with the Yankees, that the Mets with Steve Cohen's financial backing and lots of payroll space appear to be preparing to try and sign Soto is obviously bad news for the Braves. The Mets are a bit of a disaster at the moment, but they have taken some steps to build up their farm system and adding Soto back into the National League East on a team that is going to be motivated to make a run is far from ideal. If the Mets pull it off and have some things break their way on the pitching side, New York could be trouble again.
The good news here is that despite what the Mets may want to happen, New York is going to have a lot of competition. The Yankees are certainly not going to go down without a fight especially if Soto plays well this year. Arte Moreno's Angels desperately need to make a splash after a brutal offseason and he loves to land star bats. San Francisco has money to play with and Soto is exactly the type of guy they have been trying to land for a few years now. Hell, don't discount the possibility that the Dodgers just completely ignore the luxury tax and make a run at him (yes, we know that would be gross).
While it is extremely unlikely that Atlanta will try and land Soto in free agency as they generally avoid Boras clients and don't shell out that kind of money to one guy, they can take comfort in the knowledge that Atlanta has basically become the model for how to build a roster from the top down filled with star-level talent and sustain that success over a long period. As the Mets found out last year, money doesn't buy World Series rings...although it sure can help at times.