The Los Angeles Dodgers have been among the most active MLB clubs in the offseason. They have been rumored to be in on every major free agent including the crown jewel of this free agency, Juan Soto.
Soto ended up signing a record-breaking 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, but Soto was interested in what the Dodgers plan for him would be in the event he signed with LA, per new reporting from ESPN’s Buster Olney and Jeff Passan.
Dodgers Lay Out Tantalizing Lineup For Juan Soto
Soto and his agent Scott Boras, sat down with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, GM Brandon Gomes, and manager Dave Roberts, who cut short a vacation in Europe to return for the high-stakes meeting.
“Roberts was asked how he would structure the top of his lineup with Soto. He answered: Ohtani would lead off, then Soto hitting second, Mookie Betts third, Freddie Freeman fourth.”
Boras also asked a question to give Soto a glance into how Roberts processes in-game decisions;
“Boras asked the Dodgers manager to identify a moment in which he felt the World Series slipping away — and Roberts explained that when the Yankees took a 5-0 lead in Game 5, he had called on hard-throwing reliever Michael Kopech to pitch the fourth inning, because Roberts wanted somebody to dominate the Yankees’ hitters, to reverse the shifting momentum.”
While the answers to these questions may have swayed Soto in one direction or another, it likely came down to cold hard cash. The largest reported offer from the Dodgers was in the ballpark of $600 million, far lower than Soto’s final number and unlike the large contracts LA has doled out recently contained deferred salary.
The likely Mets line up with Soto maybe equally as impressive, with Francisco Lindor leading off, then Soto, followed by Pete Alonso third or in the cleanup spot.