When Steve Cohen took over the Mets shortly after the 2020 season, the expectation was that the club would annually go after the top free agents on the market and would look to acquire some of the game’s best players. That expectation has become a reality.
This year, the Mets are expected to sign Juan Soto. It’s been the story of the winter and the Mets are considered finalists to land the generational hitter that recently played in the Bronx.
Former Mets players are watching with the same intrigue as fans. Last week, Hall of Fame left-hander John Franco was caught on camera by his daughter Ella listening to a podcast about his former club’s pursuit of the right fielder. The former reliever watched his phone intently as his daughter secretly recorded him for her TikTok account.
“I’ll be interested to see what happens,” Franco recently told the Daily News. “From what I read or what I hear, there’s like four or five teams that are interested, depending on how far they want to go. I mean, obviously the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox, that’s what I heard. But it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.”
Franco knows about as much as the rest of us. Only Soto, his family and his agent Scott Boras know which way he’s leaning. But Franco is happy to see the Mets wading into the deep end of the pool by pursuing stars like Soto so heavily.
In recent years, the Mets have shown interest in Shohei Ohtani, they signed Justin Verlander coming off of a Cy Young season and nearly signed Carlos Correa before the deal fell apart. Former Mets players have been impressed by what David Stearns has been able to do during his short time in Queens and with the backing of Cohen and the recent playoff run, some alums are optimistic about the club’s short-term and long-term future.
Soto would take that optimism to a whole new level.
“He’s one of the few guys you could build a team around,” Franco said. “I think ownership is committed to bringing in the best players that he can, and he’s one of the best players, if not the best player on the market right now. So I think it’ll be a tremendous asset to the team and to the organization, if they can sign Juan Soto, that’s for sure.”
While Boras is no stranger to controversy, Franco seems to have a lot of respect for the notorious super agent, saying the California-based Boras does a “tremendous job” representing talent.
Soto might be the biggest domino that has to fall, but unlike in past seasons when top free agents held up the rest of the market, teams are already starting to be proactive about trades and free agent signings. With Soto expected to be awarded a contract upwards of $600 million, many teams are already out of the competition and focusing on their own offseason needs.
The Los Angeles Angels have been busy already and the Dodgers recently signed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, another Boras client. The Mets recently added right-handed starter Frankie Montas on a two-year contract, pending a physical.
Soto is expected to sign next week during the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Dallas.
