The New York Yankees are deep into the Juan Soto sweepstakes. Soto's bidding has reportedly cleared the $600 million mark and it's only climbing from there.
The superstar outfielder is expected to make a decision in the coming days and the Yankees remain one of the favorites to sign him.
New York could make a move alongside Soto that's reminiscent of what the Los Angeles Dodgers did last winter when they signed Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the same offseason.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post recently revealed that the Yankees could look to add both Soto and the top pitcher on the market, Corbin Burnes.
"Yanks, (Toronto Blue) Jays, (Boston) Red Sox, (San Francisco) Giants, (Baltimore) Orioles are among main players for Corbin Burnes. NYY could possibly, potentially do both Soto and Burnes (but of course, they'd look to save $ elsewhere if they did)," Heyman wrote in a post to Twitter/X on Thursday.
Before getting too deep into this, let me preface that this idea is pretty unlikely to come to fruition. But, there is a chance and I can map it out here.
Soto is expected to sign for anywhere between $650 million and $700 million. Burnes is expected to sign for between $180 million and $250 million. If we meet in the middle, that puts the total to sign both players in one offseason at $890 million.
The Yankees could take a page out of the Dodgers book to make this happen, though. What am I talking about? Deferred money.
Soto has reportedly turned down the idea of deferred money in his deal, but the same can't be said about Burnes. If the Yankees can sign Soto and then work a heavily deferred deal out with Burnes, they could land both guys in a matter of a week or two.
But again, this is pretty unlikely. If the Yankees sign Soto, the New York Mets are expected to aggressively pursue Burnes as a backup plan. I don't see much of a way for the Yankees to outbid Steve Cohen and the Mets for both Soto and Burnes.
More MLB: Mets Predicted To Sign $255 Million Ace As Emergency Juan Soto Backup Plan
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