The biggest move of baseball’s offseason has been made—Juan Soto is a New York Met.
In the wee hours of Sunday night, news broke that Soto was heading to Queens on a 15-year deal worth $765 million. It’s the biggest player contract in the history of sports.
Soto had multiple gigantic offers from teams, including a $760 million deal on the table to stay with the Yankees, with whom he had just won the AL pennant. But in the end, Steve Cohen and the Mets won out, landing the services of the 26-year-old who is already well on his way to the Hall of Fame.
While the Mets were busy popping champagne, the rest of Soto’s suitors had to get back to work on building out their roster for the 2025 season. Speaking with media at MLB Winter Meetings, Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora shared his feelings about the Soto sweepstakes.
“Obviously I can’t get into the details, but from my end, it was fun. To get to know people, players of that status, it’s amazing,” Cora said of Soto. “The kid, he gets it. Let me put it that way.”
Cora said he was in a restaurant when the news broke, and saw super agent Scott Boras walk by moments after everyone got the notification on their phone.
“It’s good for baseball, that’s the way I see it. Everybody was waiting for this to happen,” Cora said. “It was interesting the way everybody reacted when we were in the restaurant.”
As for the Red Sox’s plan from here, Cora made clear that they had plenty of options, and just had to get back to work.
“We have plan A, Plan A1, A2, A3, A4, so there’s a lot of ways to accomplish what we’re set to do. We’re talking about winning the division, making the playoffs. There are different avenues, different ways, and we can attack them.”
The Red Sox finished the 2024 season 81-81, coming in third in the AL East, marking the third straight season they had missed the playoffs.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Alex Cora Reacts to Red Sox Finishing Short in Juan Soto Sweepstakes.
