Blue Jays and Red Sox meet with Juan Soto and Scott Boras

The list of known teams with which upcoming meetings will take place Juan Soto and Agent Scott Boras continues to grow. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that both the Blue Jays and Red Sox will meet with Soto and his representative this week. They will join the Mets and Yankees in that regard. Passan added that the Jays are “serious about adding a star to the lineup.” Vladimir Guerrero Jr.and Soto is, unsurprisingly, at the top of her wish list.

Similarly, Jon Heyman of the New York Post calls the Jays a legitimate contender in the Soto bid. Toronto was famously willing to make the same offer as the Dodgers to entice Shohei Ohtani He went to Los Angeles last winter, and Heyman adds that the Jays also tried to trade for Soto last winter before the Yankees ultimately acquired him from the Padres. Both reports see Toronto as a motivated buyer after a disastrous 2024 season that saw them finish in the basement of the AL East.

From a payroll perspective, the Jays should have a clear path to making a compelling offer. Jose Berrios And Yariel Rodríguez are the only players the Blue Jays have signed beyond the 2026 season – the latter never making more than $8 million per year. RosterResource projects Toronto’s 2025 payroll currently to be around $197 million – well below the franchise-record mark of $225 million on Opening Day last year. This projected number could drop even further as several non-tender/trade candidates remain on the list (e.g Dillon Tate, Eric Swanson, Jordan Romano, Zach Pop). The Blue Jays have less than $75 million in guarantees on the books through 2026.

Toronto is obviously hoping to extend the aforementioned Guerrero and would need a substantial offer to do so, but a long-term payroll deal with Soto and Guerrero seems entirely feasible given the lack of other signings. Shortstop Bo Bichette could be another extension candidate, but he’s a tough case for a long-term deal after an injury-shortened season in which he posted the worst performance of his career. At the very least, it’s easy to see how the Blue Jays could make an aggressive push and a competitive offer for Soto like they did with Ohtani.

That’s generally true for the Red Sox, even if their short-term balance sheets aren’t quite as clean. Rafael Devers, Brayan Bello And Ceddanne Rafaela are the only players truly signed long-term in Boston, but the Red Sox will still pay Masataka Yoshida And Trevor story At least significant salaries until the 2027 season. However, the Sox have a much smaller umpiring class and don’t have the specter of a possible superstar departure hanging over them like the Jays do with Guerrero. Their 2025 payroll is projected to be around $136 million (again, via RosterResource) – modest compared to their franchises’ record spending.

However, the Red Sox have curbed their spending in recent seasons. While they opened the 2022 season with a payroll of $206 million, they have otherwise spent between $170 million and $180 million since 2020. In 2018, the last time they won a World Series, the Sox opened the season with $233 million. This was followed in 2019 by $236 million (both figures via Cot’s). Signing Soto would require a willingness to return to – if not exceed – 2018-19 levels, but there are some signs that the organization is ready to do so.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has loudly expressed its intention to “deliver.”[ing] “The team capable of winning the AL East and being successful in the playoffs,” adding that the Sox must be prepared to be big players in the free agent and trade markets in order to do so to reach. Skeptics will harken back to CEO Tom Werner’s unfortunate and oft-derided “full throttle” comments from last offseason, but Breslow has taken a more direct and repeated stance on his intention to play in both markets.

The Sox have several areas to target, however, as Breslow has also expressed his intention to “raise the ceiling” in the rotation. (They were also linked Max Friedwhich lends even more credence to the idea that they’re ready to spend this winter.) Soto won’t achieve that specific goal, nor will he help balance a heavily left-handed lineup (another of Breslow’s stated goals), but that it is of little importance. Free agents as young and influential as Soto only come along once every few decades; Adding him to the lineup is a unique endeavor, and a team’s other predetermined goals can take a backseat to such a rare target.