HOUSTON — Exactly one year after Juan Soto came to this very city to start what would be a mostly triumphant but decidedly truncated Yankees career, he arrived as a Met, the highest-paid player ever, and with a contract 15 times longer.
Which wasn’t a surprise to many who foresaw Mets owner Steve Cohen’s resolve and largesse winning the big free agent prize. But it was to Cohen himself, who lived the drawn-out drama. Not once but twice Cohen figured he was out of the running.
The first time occurred at the first of three rounds of bidding, when the Mets offered about $492 million — $41M a year for 12 years. That figure came from Mets’ metrics and models, and didn’t seem unreasonable considering all-everything Shohei Ohtani’s heavily deferred $700M deal was worth around $465M. Fairly, too, multiple teams started in that same neighborhood, with the surprising Jays taking an early monetary lead.
Anyway, Cohen was surprised when Soto’s agent Scott Boras called to say he wasn’t in the ballpark. After 24 hours to recover, reflect and revise, Cohen called back, promising to do better, and keeping the Mets among the final five, with also the Red Sox, Dodgers and Yankees.
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