There were two prevailing thoughts from some people around the Dodgers organization regarding Juan Soto’s free agency this winter.
The team is probably unlikely to land the 26-year-old superstar, who is expected to command a contract upward of $700 million on a frenzied open market.
But, the Dodgers might as well try nonetheless, since they possess the competitive track record and financial resources to be one of Soto’s few realistic landing spots this offseason.
That pursuit is set to begin in earnest this week, according to a person with knowledge of the situation unauthorized to speak publicly, with Dodgers officials scheduled to meet with Soto and his agent Scott Boras on Tuesday, as MLB.com first reported.
That meeting will be the latest in a string of presentations from big-market clubs pursuing Soto in free agency.
Already, the four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger has reportedly met with the incumbent New York Yankees, deep-pocketed New York Mets and superstar-hungry Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
Despite helping the Yankees reach the World Series this year in a stellar first season in the Bronx, Soto has also said all teams will have an equal opportunity to sign him.
Landing him, therefore, will likely require winning an unprecedented bidding war.
To this point, the Dodgers — even in the wake of their billion-dollar-plus offseason last year — haven’t been scared away yet.
“Our ownership group has been incredibly supportive, and we’ve talked about payroll, how it fluctuates, and there’s very rarely like one set number,” general manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this month, speaking generally about the club’s ability to spend significantly again this winter.
“Like every single year, the goal is a championship-caliber team,” Gomes added. “They’ve always given us the opportunity to do what we need to, to help us put us in the best position possible for that.”
Soto would certainly fill a major need for the team in the outfield this winter, but the organization would typically be loath to consider such an expensive bid for a free-agent player.
Most of the major acquisitions they’ve made in recent years have come on lucrative yet relatively team-friendly deals, from Mookie Betts’ $365-million extension in 2020 (which could prove to be almost half of Soto’s cost), to Freddie Freeman’s $162-million signing in 2022 (he now has only the fifth-highest tax hit on the team), to Shohei Ohtani’s heavily deferred $700-million deal last offseason (in which $680 million of his salary won’t be paid out until a decade from now).
The Dodgers are also already well on their way to paying hefty luxury tax penalties for a fifth consecutive season next year, with more than $270 million in salary on the books for competitive balance tax purposes (the first tax threshold is at $241 million, and surcharges would reach 110% if they surpass $301 million).
However, the Dodgers are not facing typical financial restraints either.
