Mets Expected To Be Finalist For Superstar In Free Agency, Per Insider

Will the Mets land one of the best players in baseball this winter?

May 15, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Mets logo on the sleeve of J.D. Martinez during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Will the New York Mets pull off a major splash this upcoming offseason?

New York has the means to afford any player. The Mets' payroll is going to get significantly more manageable once the 2024 season comes to an end. Plus, Steve Cohen is the richest owner in Major League Baseball.

The Mets are expected to heavily spend once again this winter and the player who already has been linked to New York on numerous occasions is New York Yankees superstar Juan Soto.

Soto will be the top free agent this winter and New York certainly likes him. The Mets consistently have been linked to him and ESPN's Jeff Passan said the sweepstakes likely will come down to both New York teams bidding against each other.

"At the end of the day, high-ranking front office and ownership-level sources believe the winter for Soto is going to play out like this: Yankees vs. Mets," Passan said. "The Yankees cannot lose Soto. If they win their first championship since 2009, they can't possibly let him go, and if they lose early in the postseason they'll panic about how much worse it would be without him,"

"Yet there stand the Mets, themselves in need of a middle-of-the-order bat, owned by a man in Steve Cohen who understands data better than any of his peers. And the data says that once a player hits 30, his career will likely regress. So to get a superstar for four full seasons before he turns 30 -- and do it without having to give up players in a trade -- makes him the consummate Mets target."

Soto is a generational talent and if he could land with the Mets this winter, they immediately will be considered among the top contenders to win the World Series in 2025.

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