The news came down at 10:10 p.m. on Sunday. Juan Soto, the most gifted hitter in baseball — a 26-year-old megastar who is careening toward being a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer — would be signing a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets.
In every possible way, the Mets simply landing Soto without any other subplot would’ve been enough. This is unquestionably the biggest move in the history of the franchise, and it turbocharges the team from Queens’ future outlook following a magical run to the NLCS.
But there was a subplot, and it was an enormous one.
While inking Soto, the Mets went head-to-head with the Yankees and beat them, with the Bombers tapping out at $760 million once the cost for the contract exceeded whatever internal breaking point they had set.
It gets crazier, though.
This wasn’t just the Mets beating the Yankees for a cornerstone player for the first time ever (the Yanks’ half-hearted pursuit of Carlos Beltran before the 2005 season was not like this).
It was the Mets doing so with the Yanks fresh off their first World Series appearance in 15 years, which was only possible because of the presence of Soto, who had formed one of the most dynamic 1-2 lineup punches in baseball history with the otherworldly Aaron Judge.
And it was the Mets doing so just over a year after the Yankees traded an absolute haul to the San Diego Padres — including potential future ace Michael King — in order to get one year of Soto and what they likely hoped would be an inside track to signing him long-term.
There will be time to analyze what should come next for the Mets this offseason, whether they’re already the favorites to win the NL East in 2025, and how they stack up with the Dodgers.
But right now, it’s important to take a step back and understand that this is a seismic moment in the history of New York baseball.
Juan Soto / Imagn Images / SNY treated art
Until very recently, the Mets — who entered the league as an expansion team in 1962 as they took the place (and colors) of the Dodgers and Giants after both teams bolted New York for the West Coast following the 1957 season — had faced a built-in disadvantage when it came to going head-to-head with the team from the Bronx for players, fans in the stands, and eyeballs.
The Yankees, of course, had a nearly 60-year head start on the Mets in this town, arriving from Baltimore in 1903. Then came Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and a whole bunch of World Series titles — all before the Mets were born.
But after the Mets arrived, they filled a gaping New York National League hole that had been left by the departures of the Dodgers (who only triumphed over the Yanks once during their Brooklyn years) and Giants. And even though the Mets were laughably bad for the first seven years of their existence, they outdrew the still-mighty Yankees. Because New York, at its core, is a National League town.
In fact, the Mets outdrew the Yanks in attendance in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992.
And there were some other years that were much closer than most think, including 1998, 2008, 2016, and 2022.
The above tells you that the chance has always been there for the Mets to make this their town, or at the very least gain equal footing with the Yanks.
Now seems like the turning point in that regard.
The Yankees are a global brand. They are monoliths, kind of like U.S. Steel. Their tradition is like no other. They are cloaked in not just pinstripes, but stoicism and massive expectations. They have some archaic rules for their players, and fans who reel off the years of their 27 titles as a retort to any perceived shot at their beloved team.
But on Sunday night, those fans were in shambles, coping on social media, driving to Citi Field to shoot profanity-laced videos damning Soto, and lighting his No. 22 Yankees jersey on fire.
As we look ahead to what could be the Mets taking over the city, or at the very least claiming an even share of it, we should also look back and realize that everyone should’ve seen this day coming.
David Stearns and Steve Cohen / Imagn Images / SNY treated art
Once Steve Cohen bought the Mets, this was set in motion. And while Cohen took some big shots early, leading to a really fun but ultimately disappointing 2022 season, he has mostly been patient and calculating, lying in wait for just the right time to flex his financial might like he did on Sunday.
Before the 2024 season, Cohen got his guy when David Stearns — one of the best executives in the game — was brought in to lead baseball operations. And Stearns made a savvy hire in Carlos Mendoza, who seems like someone who will be in the manager’s chair in Queens for quite some time.
Cohen’s goal all along hasn’t been just to win. It has been to build an infrastructure that will set the Mets up to be a perennial contender. Soto saw that. And he also had to see what is going on with the Yanks.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, who has ponied up for some enormous deals in the last few years — including re-signing Judge and giving Gerrit Cole what was at the time the biggest deal ever for a pitcher — is nevertheless battling a different kind of spending atmosphere than his father, George, did during his reign.
It’s not just the Yanks who can outspend the field anymore. It’s the Dodgers, it’s been the Red Sox at times, and now it’s the Mets.
To that end, Steinbrenner has said numerous times recently — including earlier this offseason — that having payrolls that are above $300 million year after year isn’t “sustainable.” And when he repeated that line of thinking while discussing the Soto negotiations, everyone should have known where this would end up.
That’s because the Yankees, had they re-signed Soto, would’ve had two choices: change their philosophy when it comes to running really high payrolls routinely or face a tall task when it came to building a championship-level roster around Soto.
I wrote on Oct. 31, as the Soto sweepstakes were just beginning, that the Mets didn’t just have the money advantage. They also had a handful of other factors in their favor over the Yankees.
That included the Mets’ payroll situation, the fire within Cohen to stop at nothing in his effort to make them a sustainable winner, the better core, the better farm system, and a situation in the front office and at manager that is more stable than the one the Yanks have. The Mets also have a fun, loose vibe that is quite different than the one in the Bronx.
To put it more succinctly, there was a very easy argument to be made that the Mets had the better future than the Yanks.
Soto saw the money, yes. But he also saw what the Mets are building. Soto chose the Mets’ future over the Yankees’ past. And in the process, baseball in New York has been forever changed.