{"id":21051,"date":"2022-07-21T08:04:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/juan-soto-trade-talks-may-be-telling-of-yankees-hal-steinbrenner\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T08:04:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:04:59","slug":"juan-soto-trade-talks-may-be-telling-of-yankees-hal-steinbrenner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/juan-soto-trade-talks-may-be-telling-of-yankees-hal-steinbrenner\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Soto trade talks may be telling of Yankees&#8217; Hal Steinbrenner"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>As caretaker of a special team in 1998, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman correctly gambled at the trade deadline that he could win a title without giving Seattle what it wanted for Randy Johnson.  Cashman now faces similar circumstances with the Nationals and Juan Soto, only this time the call is a tougher one to make.<\/p>\n<p>In 1998 Cashman knew the core Yankees could win it all without Johnson, because they had done it two years earlier.  The GM has no such source of comfort this summer.  His team has n&#8217;t won the big one since 2009, and given the history and expectations that define the franchise, that championship \u201cdrought\u201d feels about as long as the Jets &#8216;(January 1969) and the Knicks&#8217; (May 1973).<\/p>\n<p>Cashman has seen it all in his quarter century on the job, and frankly, I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re going to learn much about him between now and 6 pm on Aug.  2. He&#8217;s highly qualified to determine if a prospects-plus package headlined by Anthony Volpe is a price worth paying for Soto.  But if the GM does come to temporary terms with his Washington counterpart, Mike Rizzo, I do think we will learn something about Hal Steinbrenner.<\/p>\n<p>As in, just how badly the Yankees owner wants to win.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, of course, everyone wants to win.  But there is a vast difference between saying that you want to win and acting like you need to win.  Steinbrenner&#8217;s decision on whether to approve a Soto acquisition and the potential half-billion dollar contract to come after 2024 \u2014 on top of a potential monster contract for Aaron Judge and existing monster deals for Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton \u2014 would identify which camp he&#8217;s in.<\/p>\n<p>Up front, understand that employing the 23-year-old Soto for three postseason runs alone would be worth just about anything Rizzo could ask for.  Now in Double-A ball, the 21-year-old Volpe might be a long-term Yankees shortstop out of central casting as a supremely talented Jersey Boy who idolized Derek Jeter.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/031622Yankees32CW.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Yankees\" class=\"wp-image-23139919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/031622Yankees32CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/031622Yankees32CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/031622Yankees32CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Hal Steinbrenner<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But measuring his upside requires some educated guessing.  There is no educated guessing with Soto, who, by Volpe&#8217;s current age, had already delivered a 34-homer, 110-RBI season in the bigs and a three-homer, seven-RBI performance in a winning World Series.  Soto needs to drive just four more balls over the fence to have more home runs before his 24th birthday than another slugger who made a loud entry into the sport at age 19. A kid by the name of Mickey Mantle.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>Soto would be something with that right-field porch in The Bronx.  He also draws more walks than anyone in baseball, giving him a better career on-base percentage (.427) than Mantle or Mike Trout.  And the fact he could absorb an extended media grilling about the reported $15-year, $440 million Nationals offer he rejected, then win the Home Run Derby hours later, suggests \u2026 well \u2026 what everything else on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 suggests:<\/p>\n<p>That the Yankees (64-28) with Soto would be a near death-and-taxes lock in the postseason to beat Houston and everyone else in their way.  Oh, and that a Yankees team anchored by Judge and Soto would have a chance to win multiple titles, 1990s style.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that ownership is willing to pay them both.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?resize=336%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"nationals\" class=\"wp-image-23139929\" width=\"336\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=667 672w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=500 504w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=333 336w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=167 168w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/USA-SPORT_.4.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Juan Soto<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though Hal Steinbrenner is no Steve Cohen, never mind Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, when it comes to net worth, the family-run Yankees are still worth $6 billion (and closer to $7 billion when factoring in the YES Network and other properties), according to Forbes.  That puts their valuation at nearly $2 billion more than the Dodgers&#8217; and $3.35 billion more than that of the Mets, and those teams are committing more to payroll than the Yankees&#8217; $250 million, according to Spotrac.<\/p>\n<p>Steinbrenner said in the spring that it&#8217;s his responsibility every year \u201cto make sure that we&#8217;re financially responsible.  I&#8217;ve got a lot of partners and banks and bondholders and things like that that I answer to.  But at the same time, it&#8217;s always the goal to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If that&#8217;s the goal, landing Soto in the dawn of his prime is the ultimate slam dunk.  Soto isn&#8217;t Kevin Durant, who will be 34 on opening night in the fall.  But he is good enough to be a franchise player long after Judge, Stanton, and Cole start to decline.<\/p>\n<p>And given the Yankees&#8217; value, this shouldn&#8217;t be an either\/or call between Judge and Soto, though the latter would represent one hell of an insurance policy in case the former bolts in free agency.  Judge has earned a contract far north of the seven-year, $213.5-million extension offer he rejected in the spring, and Steinbrenner should give it to him.<\/p>\n<p>The owner would then have two years to figure out how to pay Soto about $500 million on top of that, assuming the outfielder keeps playing the way he&#8217;s playing.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>So if Cashman and Rizzo can agree on the All-Star&#8217;s worth, Steinbrenner should be willing to eat Patrick Corbin&#8217;s contract and sacrifice the payroll balance that Yankees prospects provide in their early years on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, as unfair as it might be to forever compare Steinbrenner to his father, a flawed man and leader, there&#8217;s no doubt what George Steinbrenner would do here.  He would add Soto to Judge just like he once added Alex Rodriguez to Jeter.<\/p>\n<p>Hal Steinbrenner might soon get the chance to pick up a very big check, or two, and whether he does or doesn&#8217;t will tell us an awful lot about him.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As caretaker of a special team in 1998, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman correctly gambled at the trade deadline that he could win a title without giving Seattle what it wanted for Randy Johnson. Cashman now faces similar circumstances with the Nationals and Juan Soto, only this time the call is a tougher one to &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/juan-soto-trade-talks-may-be-telling-of-yankees-hal-steinbrenner\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Juan Soto trade talks may be telling of Yankees&#8217; Hal Steinbrenner<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[4406,1055,661,1002,307],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23220,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/brian-cashman-must-use-expertise-to-provide-yankees-answer-to-astros\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":0},"title":"Brian Cashman must use expertise to provide Yankees answer to Astros","date":"July 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the first three and a half months of a season, baseball teams will absolutely show their general managers whether or not they are worthy of trade-deadline support for October. Even though the 2021 Yankees all but shouted from a mountaintop that they did not deserve that support, Brian Cashman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Brian Cashman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/1390310317-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19673,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yankees-have-this-to-weigh-when-deciding-on-juan-soto-trade\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":1},"title":"Yankees have this to weigh when deciding on Juan Soto trade","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Put yourself in the room. See both sides. Because this is what the Yankees will have to do. This is what Brian Cashman will have to orchestrate. What Hal Steinbrenner will have to ultimately mull and decide. This is not an easy decision, after all, just how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"All-Star","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/All_Star_Game_Baseball.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11336,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/rosenthal-yankees-need-to-seize-the-moment-at-the-trade-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":2},"title":"Rosenthal: Yankees need to seize the moment at the trade deadline","date":"July 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in 2016 when he was running the Cubs, Theo Epstein explained giving up top infield prospect Gleyber Torres in a package for closer Aroldis Chapman by asking, \u201cIf not now, when?\u201d The Yankees' championship drought is 13 years, which even using the late George Steinbrenner's math would not equate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/03\/12091331\/GettyImages-1212025693-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11697,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/brian-cashmans-yankees-needs-little-at-mlb-trade-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":3},"title":"Brian Cashman&#8217;s Yankees needs little at MLB trade deadline","date":"July 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"General manager Brian Cashman, the second most important Yankees free agent, left Boston after watching his Yankees' first three games here. He still has work to do \u2014 a little anyway. Cashman continues to try to refine their roster, which may feel like Da Vinci's last few strokes on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Brian Cashman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/20220314_YankeesSpringTraining047cs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22903,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/juan-soto-retweets-then-deletes-derek-jeter-loyalty-quote\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":4},"title":"Juan Soto retweets, then deletes, Derek Jeter &#8216;loyalty&#8217; quote","date":"July 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As trade rumors continue to swirl over Juan Soto, the Nationals superstar is once again making his feelings known on the matter \u2013 momentarily, that is. Taking to Twitter on Friday morning, Soto shared a tweet from former Yankees' shortstop Derek Jeter, only to delete it moments later. The message\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Taking to Twitter Friday morning, Soto shared a tweet from former Yankees' shortstop Derek Jeter, only to delete it moments later.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/jeter-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17289,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/could-juan-soto-be-a-yankee\/","url_meta":{"origin":21051,"position":5},"title":"Could Juan Soto be a Yankee?","date":"July 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As the All-Star break is upon us, reports have surfaced that following the rejection of the latest extension offer by the Nationals for Juan Soto \u2014 allegedly worth $440 million dollars \u2014 that Washington may be open to dealing its prized star outfielder, and with that , all hell breaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/newspress-collage-23139835-1658368043698.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1658353798&w=1024","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}