NYY News: Juan Soto meeting today
Today at 12:00 AM
The Yankees meet with Juan Soto today; Rookie of the Year announced tonight; notes on the 2024 offseason to date
Sports Illustrated | John Sparaco: Today is the first critical moment of the offseason for the Yankees, for today, Hal Steinbrenner leads a contingent of Yankees executives, including general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone, to meet with Juan Soto and Scott Boras in Newport Beach, California. According to sources close to the Yankees' thinking, Steinbrenner will be "aggressive" and "all in" during the negotiations. To do so, he intends to emphasize the success of the Soto/Aaron Judge pairing atop the lineup, as well as the fact that the team went to the World Series this year (of course, the mountain of cash they expect to offer him, one that few in baseball are likely to match, will also be a contributing factor).
Once this first round of meetings is over, many expect a conclusion to the Soto saga will come sooner than expected — possibly as early as the first week of December. After last year's debacle that saw all of Boras's major clients remain on the market until late in the offseason, it's likely that he will try to get his biggest client out of the way early so that he can turn to players like Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman.
New York Post | Mike Puma: Tonight, Major League Baseball announces this year's Rookie of the Year recipients. For the second time in six seasons, two of the three finalists for the American League — Luis Gil and Austin Wells — are members of the Yankees (in 2018, Miguel Andújar and Gleyber Torres finished second and third, behind Shohei Ohtani). If either player wins the award, it will be mildly historic: no Yankees pitcher has won ROTY since Dave Righetti in 1981 (coincidentally, the last time the Yankees lost to the Dodgers in the Fall Classic), while the last Yankee catcher to win was Thurman Munson in 1970.
FanGraphs | David Laurila: Weekends in the offseason can be slow — especially during the early parts of November. That means it's the perfect time to review what's happened over the last week! In this feature, David Laurila discusses free agent starter Nick Pivetta, a pitcher that Yankees fans should be familiar with from his years with the Red Sox. Among other news included here, Yankees farmhand Caleb Durbin has been making a name for himself in the Arizona Farm League, while former Yankees first baseman Greg Bird has been showing that the bird is still the word in the land down under.
