Inside The Pinstripes

Red Sox Legend Makes Passionate Recruiting Pitch to Yankees' Free Agent Juan Soto

New York Yankees fans won't like hearing what a Red Sox icon had to say about Juan Soto potentially heading to Boston.

Grant Young

Oct 27, 2023; Arlington, TX, USA; FOX MLB analyst and former players Alex Rodriguez (left), David Ortiz and Derek Jeter before game one of the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2023; Arlington, TX, USA; FOX MLB analyst and former players Alex Rodriguez (left), David Ortiz and Derek Jeter before game one of the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
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The New York Yankees have several clear competitors when it comes to signing Juan Soto to a long-term deal this offseason.

A November 21 article from the New York Post's Jon Heyman conveyed that, in addition to the Yankees, there are five realistic suitors for Soto's services at this point.

Four of these five teams are among the Yankees' biggest rivals.

One of these is the Los Angeles Dodgers; who, while not typically considered one of the Yankees' biggest foes, certainly are right now after defeating them in the World Series.

Then there are the cross-town rival Mets, who are considered a favorite to land Soto.

The final two teams (with the fifth non-rival being the Philadelphia Phillies) play in the Yankees' AL East division: the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.

While Soto leaving the Bronx for any team this offseason will be a tough pill for Yankees fans to swallow, there's no question him remaining in the AL East would sting exceptionally badly.

Red Sox legend David Ortiz is doing all he can to make that scenario a reality, which is shown by a recruiting pitch he made to Soto during a November 22 episode of "The Fenway Rundown: Boston Red Sox Podcast".

When Ortiz was asked why Soto should make Boston his free agency choice, he said, "Because you're going to play for an organization that has a lot of history. You're going to play for an organization that has the greatest fans. He gonna feel like he's playing at home in the Dominican Republic, and he gonna have, in his corner, his godfather: Big Papi."

Yankees fans would argue that their franchise has a whole lot more history to offer than the Red Sox.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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