There are obvious and serious risks to the blockbuster the Yankees have pulled off.
Maybe some of the pitching talent sent to San Diego rises to stardom.
Maybe the new superstar in The Bronx becomes a Juan-and-done.
But the prospect cost and the fleeting nature of Juan Soto’s contract — which ends after the 2024 season — is being viewed as a problem for another day.
After a season that Brian Cashman labeled a “disaster,” the Yankees will attempt to bounce back led by a superstar whose stop in New York could be brief.
Cashman will figure out the future later because the present is what matters most.
“The future is always now,” the Yankees general manager said Thursday over Zoom. “[Soto is] a free agent at the end of this term. We understand that it’s a possible short-term situation.
“I know he’s going to make our team significantly better.”
That is the hope for the Yankees, whose pitching depth has been depleted.
One year of Soto and two years of Trent Grisham cost pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez and catcher Kyle Higashioka.
There have not been any discussions yet, Cashman said, about a possible extension for the 25-year-old generational talent.
Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, notoriously prefers to allow his clients to hit free agency and let the open bidding dictate their values.
Still, the Yankees have traded for the rights to attempt to negotiate early with Soto and will have a year to sell him on The Bronx.
Cashman referenced the culture of the club and its “intent to win” always.
He believes his team puts players in the best positions to succeed.
He mentioned “one of the greatest fan bases in the world” as another selling point.
“We certainly want to try, under the Steinbrenner leadership, to make this the mecca of baseball,” said Cashman, who added the Soto trade conversations with Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller extended back to the trade deadline. “And also to make this an amazing, enjoyable experience for players and their families alike. So if we take care of stuff like that, that recruiting effort becomes somewhat automatic.”
The best recruiting tool (besides money) is winning, and the Yankees will have a much better shot of lifting a trophy with Soto in their lineup.
An All-Star three years straight, Soto is most often compared not with any modern hitter but with Ted Williams, both lefty sluggers with impeccable batting eyes who starred immediately from a very young age.
Since debuting in 2018 as a 19-year-old, Soto’s .421 on-base percentage is the best in baseball.
He has walked (19.0 percent) more often than he has struck out (17.1 percent) while bringing consistent power (hitting 35 home runs last season).
The Yankees have been desperate for any offensive help and particularly lefty offensive help after scoring the sixth-fewest runs in MLB last season.
Yankees lefty hitters posted just a .673 OPS last season, the fourth-worst in the majors.
Now Soto can be paired with Aaron Judge, both seen as 80s on the traditional baseball scouting scale (on which 80 is the highest).
“How many teams are running out two eights in their outfield?” Cashman said about his likely Nos. 2 and 3 hitters. “The great thing about the Crazy Eights is that one’s right-handed, one’s left-handed. That creates a tougher lineup to navigate.”
Bringing in another superstar and absorbing the prospect cost — “It hurt a lot on our end to give up some real pieces,” Cashman said — and the cost of a projected $33 million in one year of Soto’s salary is a throwback move for a team that loves star power.
Cashman, who said the Yankees still had more work to do, would not comment on how high the team’s payroll could go but did thank team ownership.
“Just another manifestation of the Steinbrenner legacy,” Cashman said. “I think George Steinbrenner always felt that the best players in the world should play here for the New York Yankees and … obviously, Hal Steinbrenner and Jenny and Jessica have continued those efforts.”
The Yankees surrendered King, who showed an ace-like upside at the end of last season.
Thorpe was the pitcher of the year in the minors.
Brito and Vasquez offered depth that Cashman acknowledged needs replenishing.
Higashioka was beloved and the longest-tenured player in the organization.
All for one player and perhaps for just one year.
For Cashman, Soto’s rare talents made it a risk worth taking.
“We’re just very proud of the fact we can call him a Yankee at this time,” Cashman said, “with the full intentions of taking a shot at a title.”