Washington Nationals: DoD’s Staffs Thoughts On Juan Soto Extension Talks
By Max Rayman
Thoughts on Juan Soto Turning it down?
Max: At first glance, it’s hard to fathom anyone turning down this type of money — and then you take a deeper look. This deal would have made him only the 20th highest paid player peer average annual value (AAV) — with Miguel Cabrera, George Springer, Carlos Correa, and Stephen Strasburg all making more than him. Obviously, Soto is better than those four and should be paid as such. While the offer has zero deferrals, it is extremely backloaded –making the total cost go down.
But the biggest factor should be that the Lerner’s are in the process of selling the team. Why would Soto agree to stay in D.C. long-term if he has no idea who will be leading the organization and what those people’s plans are?
Ryan: He wasmart too. Signing right now without knowing who the new ownership is would be dumb. He needs to see their commitment to winning, no one is signing their career away knowing that their entire prime will be with losing teams
Nick: t’s no surprise. Boras likes his clients to go to free agency and Soto himself has said he’s basically going to free agency. He was also annoyed this came out in public, so that tells you the Lerner’s leaked it so Soto would appear greedy. It’s unfortunate.
Nationals Source: I’m not surprised he turned it down… I am however slightly surprised that there was no counter. For a guy who constantly says I want to be here, you would think that 440 million would prompt some sort of two-way conversation.