The Landscape of New York Baseball Changed Forever Tonight
Juan Soto is a New York Met. He'll spend the next 15 years in Queens. Theres so much to talk about in terms of how it impacts this team in 2025. Does he bat second, in between Lindor and VIentos? Do the Mets go re-sign Pete and put Soto more in the middle of the lineup around Alonso? What Mets and MLB records does he break? Will he take the Mets to the Promised Land and how many times does he do it? What will the statue look like in Queens? These are all the questions that we will answer as we head into the future.
But for now…right now, in this very moment, we know one thing for sure - the landscape of New York Baseball forever shifted. Because of one man and one contract. This city has never seen anything like this. And the Mets have certainly never seen anything like this. So first thing's first, let me just say to my fellow Mets fans who are from The Worst Generation (Mets fans old enough to endure 3 decades of suffering but not old enough to be alive in 69 or have enjoyed 86. We have lived the worst life a Mets fan can possibly live) - soak it in. Tonight was for every Mets fan who watched Vladamir Guerrero go to the Angels when he should have been a forgone conclusion to join the Mets. Watching the Mets offer a paltry 3 yr, $30M dollar deal for a player who would have been a PERFECT fit.
For every Mets who watched Alex Rodriguez slip through their fingers because Steve Philips' dumb ass didnt want to give him a suite and a billboard. "24 and 1" bullshit. The greatest shortstop of all time WANTED to come to the dysfunctional Mets shitshow and WE somehow told HIM no.
For every Mets fan who wanted Matt Holliday and had to settle for Jason fucking Bay.
For every Mets fan that listened to bullshit lip service from the Wilpons "kicking the tires" or "being in on" all the major free agents, only to learn of non competitive bullshit contracts that were never realistic offers.
For every Mets fan lived through the Wilpons falling for a goddam Ponzi scheme.
For every Mets fan who had to endure cheap ass New York owners who always behaved like a small-market-team-in-a-big-city never willing to go the extra mile to build a winner. (I undersstand the Mets are not the Pirates or the Rays but given their location the fact that they would never spend accordingly almost makes the way they operated more unforgivable)
And to all those fans who had to endure all of that while the Yankees just signed super star, after super star, after super star…THIS IS FOR YOU. Literally a lifetime of incompetence built towards this moment and all is almost instantly erased by signing the modern day Ted Williams and locking him up for 15 years. This is our time to finally enjoy our moment in the sunshine. This changes the trajectory of Mets baseball forever.
But more importantly, this changes the trajectory of New York baseball forever. Because not only did the Mets get their man..they plucked him right from the Yankees clutches. Pulling off this signing would have been huge if Juan Soto was still on the Nationals or still on the Padres. But pulling it off when the man was ALREADY ON the New York Yankees??? Stealing away an all time generational talent…at the age of just 26…while he was currently ON the Yankees, and had just played IN THE WORLD SERIES WITH THEM?????? That is simply unfathomable. Incomprehensible. My brain cannot compute. Its like when I try to understand how black holes prove the existence of time travel or some shit…like I simply cannot wrap my mind around it. Never in a billion years did I think the Mets would have the money, the competence, the allure, the clout, the cache, the appeal to pull that off.
In general the Mets have never been a major player when it comes to all time great free agents like this. They've never been a threat to go up against the Yankees. Its never been an arms race between the two like Boston had with the Yankees. Even when the Mets made some splashes in the past, it never had much to do with the Yankees and never really compared to the sustained splashing the Yankees used to exhibit. The phrase growing up was "hes gonna look great in Pinstripes" for basically every major player that was soon to hit free agency (Ironically threre are 3 generational players that hit free agency in their mid 20s that the baseball world all thought would end up in the Bronx - Harper, Machado and now Soto - and the Yankees went 0 for 3 on all of them.) Nobody, up until Steve Cohen buying the team, has EVER thought of the Mets as a premiere destination and if they did it was basically because the Yankees were not in on said player, for whatever reason. Even when the Mets landed their big names, it was because the Yankees basically allowed them to. Like even when Beltran came to the Mets there was rumors he was willing to take a discount to play in the Bronx but it just didnt work out. Like there was just NEVER any comparison.
And thats why this contract is a seminal moment in New York Baseball history. Because this is a man that had played in the Bronx, wore the Pinstripes, played in Yankees Stadium in October, played in a World Series as a New York Yankee….and then chose to ditch all that for Queens. And you can look at it 2 ways. The first was is that the Mets just had more money and bullied the Yankees financially. There's some chatter from Heyman that Cohen family sealed the deal for him after Yankees employees disrespected his family:
But for the most part this was just Steve Cohen dropping his dick and his wallet on the table and knocking Hal Steinbrenner's broke ass over. With a $75 mil signing bonus and a opt out avoidance clause that will push it over $800 million, this was the Mets officially announcing they have more money than the Yankees and pretty much always will, for the rest of Steve Cohen's life. Like if Hal cant find the money for Juan Soto, he'll never find the money for anybody. The Mets will always be able to outbid the Yankees forever now.
Or, the other way to look at this, is that the money was pretty comparable. Yes, I understand I just said the Mets full over was $800 and the Yankees was $760. 40 mil aint nothing to sneeze at. But relatively speaking, these are similar offers. This is not like when Arod got $252 million to go to Texas. Like it was such an OBSCENE over pay (Literally double the biggest contract in sports history, Kevin Garnett's $126 million, on purpose) it was Arod saying "the only way I'll go play for this fuckin franchise is if you blow me away with money." No, this wasnt that. $760 million from the Yankees was certainly enough to make Juan Soto consider staying put.
And so I dont know whats worse for Yankees fans. The Mets bullying the Yankees at the negotiating table. Or the Yankees making a 3/4 of a billion dollar offer and Juan Soto looking at the 2 franchises and saying "Nah, I'm gonna take 3/4 of a billion from the Mets instead." For whatever reason. A better owner, brighter future, better farm, the casino complex, whatever. No matter what it is and no matter how you cut it, when the most important attainable free agent of a generation was available, the Mets out performed the Yankees. The best of the best said I am going to Queens, not the Bronx. A man who had the chance to try to run it back and win a World Series as a New York Yankee and he said "I dont give a shit about that." Whether its because the Mets had more money…or as a franchise had more appeal…or whether its because the Yankees aura and mystique doesnt mean anything anymore…no matter how you view it, its the end of the Little Brother rhetoric. Of course you need to win a World Series to truly put an end to the narrative, but short of that, this is the most important thing that can happen to kill that story line. A story line that has dominated NYC baseball for the last 30 years. Theres no longer a Yankees dynasty, theres no longer Yankees prestige. The Mets are no longer broke. They're no longer a joke. The gap between the two franchises has been closed. And the only way you can continue to argue that the Yankees are a superior franchise to the Mets is completely predicated upon the past. In terms of the present and the future, the Mets are in a better position to contend in the MLB for years to come. Thats just a fact based on the ownership, the front office, the approach, the attitude. One team is overhauling everything and doing everything in their power to get to the Promised Land. The other is just trying to live up to the reputation of George Steinbrenner while staying under the luxury tax. Again, no matter how approach this, these are the facts and either Cohen's offer or Soto's choice proves it. Like this video right here?
A video like this will NEVER happen again.
SNL skits making fun of the Mets saying their needy and less fortunate?
That NEVER happens ever again.
Tonight was the night the inferiority complex can finally be legitimately put to bed.
Now, I understand the irony of saying that while simultaneously writing a blog celebrating this whole saga. But thats because its too late for people like me that have lived in this Yankees dominated hellscape my whole life. I will forever be battered and jaded and will relish Yankee failure and dream of Mets success. But the next generation? The fans coming up now? Thats all been erased. My kids will wake up in a few hours with Juan Soto being a New York Met and they will start to live their lives in a world where the best players on earth choose Queens. The Mets are the fun team. With all the best players. And the most money. And the best owner. The New York destination, or at the very least an equal destination. They will go through elementary school and high school and college living the exact polar opposite life the Worst Generation lived for their entire lives. I'll be 55 while we unveil the Soto statue explaining to the young fans that it didnt always used to be this way. Them, unable to even believe there was a time when the Mets were a joke and couldnt be mentioned in the same sentence with the Yankees. That reality is now upon us.
And it’s all because of one player, and one man. The combination of Juan Soto on the field, and Steve Cohen in the owners box. Changed the entire city with one pen stroke on one sheet of paper. Steve Cohen has explicitly said his goal was to slay this dragon and get rid of the negative perception about this franchise:
5 years in and with one special signing, he’s basically done that. The final nail in the coffin will be the World Series title, but until that day, this is the move that changed the franchise’s reputation forever.
The mantra has always been "Ya gotta believe" in a bit of an ironic way. Like as a Mets fan, you gotta just have blind faith that this will all work out one day, because logic aint dictating that. Now, thats no longer the case. Now, it’s "Ya gotta believe" simply because you literally have to believe. It would be stupid not to.