The Toronto Blue Jays built their whole offseason around a pursuit of Juan Soto, but when push came to shove, the team came nowhere close. While the superstar outfielder signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets, it turned out that Toronto’s front office came nowhere near that number, with reports suggesting their final offer failed to even crack the $700 million mark. It was an awfully anticlimactic conclusion to an all-important offseason for the franchise.
And to make matters even worse, it sounds like the Jays may have taken themselves out of serious consideration before a single contract offer was even made. While Soto and Scott Boras played things close to the vest throughout, we knew that he valued relationships, and that any team that hoped to sign him would have to convince him, from ownership on down, that they were the ones to create a winning environment for he and his family. As much as all that money, it’s a huge reason why Soto eventually wound up with Steve Cohen and the Mets.
Which is what makes Toronto’s approach so its own meeting with Soto so completely baffling.
Blue Jays ownership makes baffling decision during Juan Soto pitch
With Soto finally being introduced as a Met, details have begun to emerge about his blockbuster free agency, with ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Buster Olney publishing a juicy tick-tock account on Thursday. There are plenty of notable nuggets in there, but one in particular should stick out to Blue Jays fans.
“Toronto Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers, a rarely seen presence in baseball decisions, flew to California to helm the franchise’s meeting with Soto, shaking hands with Boras for the first time.”
On the one hand, it’s good that ownership recognized the magnitude of the Soto sweepstakes and wanted to do whatever it could to help out. But on the other … how did they think this was going to work out, exactly? Not only did Rogers not have any relationship whatsoever with Soto, his family or his agent, but he has hardly any experience with the negotiating process. And yet, that’s who the Jays decided should make the team’s case to the biggest free agent in baseball history.
As the team struggles to find any big-name free agents who will take their money, it’s getting harder and harder to see how Toronto gets back to relevance in the AL East. It’s clear that the current regime doesn’t understand how the game is played, and until they get serious, things will only get worse.