Dodgers will bid for Juan Soto — thanks to Shohei Ohtani’s contract

LOS ANGELES — The richest may get even richer. The Dodgers are halfway to beating the Yankees in the World Series, and word is they have interest in signing Yankees superstar Juan Soto, according to people familiar with their thinking.

The Dodgers, already arguably baseball’s best offense — it’s either them or the Yankees — intend to make a play for Soto “if he’s interested” in coming, sources say.

The Yankees and Mets are understandably viewed by folks around baseball as likely favorites to sign Soto, not only because they are very good teams in prime position financially to make a run at the free agent who’s expected to set a salary record, but because Soto is seen as enjoying his year in New York. The juggernaut Dodgers can afford him, too, but the biggest question for them is: Would he go back west?

Yankees people see the Mets (and maybe the Blue Jays) as the real threat in the Soto derby and don’t believe Soto wants to return to Southern California any more than Shohei Ohtani wanted to come to New York. As for Soto and the Dodgers, a Yankees person had two words: “Never happen.”

The Yankees almost annually are believed to be baseball’s highest revenue team and the Mets have baseball’s richest single owner, Steve Cohen, but the Dodgers financial situation, already excellent, was exponentially enhanced upon Shohei Ohtani’s signing. Dodgers baseball people often thank Ohtani for showing the flexibility to sign the $700M deal that is 97 percent deferred, which aids them well beyond his own unprecedented 50-50 productivity by allowing them to sign almost anyone. And truth be told, Dodgers bigs thank their lucky stars every day for the gift that will presumably keep on giving.

Word is that since $68M of Ohtani’s $70M salary is deferred without interest, the cost to the Dodgers is closer to around $30M annually, even lower than the $43.7M players union estimate. But the much bigger benefit is the enormous profit the Dodgers are making via sponsorship and marketing opportunities — two Asian airlines alone sponsor the Dodgers, the LA Times reported — and word is, it’s actually many times the cost to them of Ohtani’s record contract.

Soto, who hit 41 home runs and posted a career-best .989 OPS for a full season in 2024, is right up the Dodgers’ alley as an all-time great player with a pristine reputation and unusual youth for a free agent — he turned 26 the day of Game 1. And though on the cusp of the World Series he called this year “one of the most fun years,” he’s consistently said his main interest is in winning, and brilliantly run LA is well-positioned to continue to do that, perhaps even as well-positioned as history’s champion, the Yankees.

The Dodgers signed well over $1B in player contracts last winter, including $325M (plus $50.6M in posting fee) for another historically young free agent, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the right-hander who shut down the Yankees in LA’s 4-2 Game 2 victory, and are expected to play big again this winter.

The Dodgers’ overriding question on Soto is geographic. Many do see the Yankees and Mets holding an edge in the highly anticipated free-agent derby since there was suggestion early in his tenure in San Diego that the Dominican star preferred to be on the East Coast, where he started with the Nationals in Washington. But while he may prefer the East, word is there was an excellent chance he was going to re-sign with the Padres last summer before beloved Padres owner Peter Seidler took ill and passed away. They were said to be “down the road” in negotiations before Seidler’s tragic turn.

Soto enhanced his résumé by showing he can thrive in New York and burnished his huge postseason reputation with another big October — he became the youngest player to hit five home runs in a postseason in the Nats’ 2019 title run and this October he’s posted close to a 1.400 OPS between the ALCS and first two World Series games. But the other question is whether he minds being the second fiddle on a team where Ohtani is unquestionably No. 1. (Soto hasn’t minded it in NY with Aaron Judge). The Dodgers already do have the best right fielder in MLB, Mookie Betts, but he’s shown he can play anywhere, including center field. Soto could also play left field. Free agent Teoscar Hernandez is having a superb year and says he “1,000 percent” wants to stay.

The Dodgers are seen as quite possibly the pipeline favorite for yet another Japanese star, right-handed pitcher Roki Sasaki, if he comes over this winter (there’s seen as a decent chance he will), and with the Yamamoto signing, they’ve already broken the notion that big Japanese stars don’t want to share the spotlight with another Japanese star. The Dodgers are in position for another $1B plus winter with a decent crop of free agents available.

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The incomparable Ohtani is expected to join the rotation next year, and injured pitching stars Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and presumably all-time great Clayton Kershaw should also bolster the skeletal rotation group that so far has the Dodgers with a two-games-to-none World Series lead, but pitching is expected to be emphasized.

No one would be surprised if they also made runs at any of 1) Blake Snell, who sources said will be opting out (they tried for him last spring but came up just short, declining to do the second year and opt out), 2) Southern California native and former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, 3) their own Jack Flaherty, who pitched a gem in the NLCS vs. the Mets and a near-gem in Game 1 vs. the Yankees, 4) his LA Harvard Westlake High School teammate Max Fried or 5) any other star.

It should be no surprise Soto is on their radar. As one person familiar with their thinking pointed out, they’ve at least tried for “almost every” big-time free agent. The only superstars they completely passed on were Carlos Correa (due to Dodgers fan hatred of the Astros from the tainted 2017 World Series) and Judge, who they correctly assumed was returning to the Yankees. (They also didn’t play for their own Manny Machado as they felt he didn’t fit into their clubhouse, according to Dodgers people.)

They previously signed Freddie Freeman, as well as Yamamoto, locked up Betts and tried for Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper, their own Corey Seager and many other megastars. But thanks to Ohtani’s contract, which is not only the richest but most “flexible” ever, they are a threat to sign almost anyone the next nine winters.