Winter Wonderland

BY KEVIN KERNAN

The new Golden Era of the Mets began on Thursday when Juan Soto was officially crowned the King of Queens.

And please don’t fall for all the double talk at this press conference about Soto’s family being treated better by the Mets than the Yankees. This is all about the money. And that’s okay.

Always follow the money.

That King of Queens crown cost a mind-boggling $765 million, including a $75 million signing bonus that Steve Cohen paid Soto. Cohen also just so happened to liquidate himself of the the Mets AAA team in Syracuse and High A team in Brooklyn, selling them to Diamond Baseball Holdings, which is buying up every minor league franchise it can get its hands on these days.

The times they are a-changing across the board in baseball, and this week with the conclusion of the Winter Wonderland Meetings in Dallas there were winners and losers throughout the game.

Winners spend money – even if they wind up losing – because they are at least offering hope to their fans. And give credit to the Mets for doing just that.

The Mets were winners no matter how the Soto signing works out because Cohen brought the franchise hope for a brighter future, a franchise that has won only two World Series in its long history. And that is what owners are supposed to do, acquire the best talent available and give hope to the fans.

Free agents only cost money, and money is something all the owners have plenty of – no matter how much they cry about having to spend it.

To me, anyone who signed a talented free agent was a winner in these Winter Meetings. Free agents only cost money, and money is something all the owners have plenty of – no matter how much they cry about having to spend it.

Once the Yankees lost out in the Soto Sweepstakes they switched gears to starting pitching, a smart move and signed reliable Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract, the largest contract a left-handed pitcher has ever received.

Here is a statistic I love about Fried. From 2019 through 2023 Fried posted a 60-21 record with a 3.00 ERA. Winning matters for starting pitchers no matter what kind of BS the analytical crowd has been throwing at us for the last decade.

Winning. Matters.

The Yankees could have saved themselves a lot of Soto time and trouble if they were paying attention to BallNine over the last year; they would have realized much earlier they had no chance of signing Soto and this chase was pretty much eye wash for the fans and upped Soto’s cost to the Mets. Geez, maybe the Yankees wanted to run up the bill on Uncle Steve. The fact Soto said Thursday he did not talk to any Yankees after the World Series ended tells you all you need to know.

That disastrous fifth inning against the Dodgers in Game 5 finished him with the Yankees and Soto said Thursday he believes the Mets have the brighter future, saying, “We looked at other teams and what everybody wanted to do for the next 15 years, and I think we have the best chance over here.’’

There you have it.

No matter what Hal Steinbrenner put on the table, Cohen was not going to lose out on Soto. He was like the richest of the rich at an auction, the guy who kept raising his paddle. And don’t believe for one minute that there was a point where Cohen was sure that he was going to finish in second place to the Yankees because the Yankees had something the Mets didn’t have and that was Aaron Judge.

Actually, Aaron Judge was the best thing the Mets had going for them in the Battle of New York. Soto could never be The Man with the Yankees because of Judge, at least for about six more years. Soto wanted to be The Man all along; I don’t blame him, and with the Mets he clearly holds that unique title.

Soto ran into a similar issue in San Diego where Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. were the leaders of that club. The Yankees proved to be the perfect one-year steppingstone for Soto because he could bat ahead of Judge and get all those delicious pitches to hit with Judge behind him. Soto needs to send a gift to Judge. Same goes for Gleyber Torres, who benefitted at leadoff, hitting ahead of Soto and Judge.

The Mets still have work to do in finding lineup protection for Soto. Francisco Lindor proved in 2024 that he was the perfect leadoff man for Carlos Mendoza. Mendoza has a great baseball eye and will put Soto in a great spot to succeed. The first thing he must do is make sure Soto gets his body in a little better shape to play the field. Soto became a liability in right field for the Yankees, who had a number of defensive liabilities. I’m convinced he was cheating in on balls in right to make throws home. That is why he had such trouble with balls hit over his head. His defense must get better.

Do that now and let the talent flow forever.

The Mets now need to re-sign Pete Alonso. Soto is such a great hitter and is extremely capable of making others become better hitters. He will make Alonso a better hitter by discussing the art of hitting: “Stop swinging at that slider that is a foot off the plate, Pete”.

With all the happy talk on Thursday, don’t overlook the fact that Soto said the Mets still have to improve their lineup.

Soto is always in command in the box and that is the biggest lesson Soto can pass along to Alonso. If Alonso moves on and I would be surprised if he did, the Mets are going to have to make a big deal for a big bat.

I spoke with someone from the Yankees and asked them about Soto’s unique hitting ability. This person summed it up perfectly with this comment about Soto’s ability of hitting in the clutch.

“He’s so locked into every at-bat every game that when the ‘big moments’ come, it’s just another AB for him,’’ this Yankee person explained.

That is exactly it, the ability to lock into every at-bat. Most hitters can’t keep up that mentally exhausting pace. You can see it happen to Alonso where he is so excited about an at-bat, his emotions get the best of him. That locked in mindset is something that Soto can help bring to Alonso and all the Mets hitters. I am interested to see how he works with Mark Vientos, who had a terrific season for the Mets, but still has a long way to go. By the way, Vientos is 25. Soto, with that incredible major league resume is all of 26, only one year older than Vientos.

Think about that for a second.

I would go so far as to say that Soto has that ability to lock into every at-bat in much the same manner Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes locks into every play, and how Mahomes always seems to come up big when points are needed at the end of the game to post a “W.’’

Again, winning matters. The process is the process, but winning is the name of the game.

That is a rare ability in the sports world and both Soto and Mahomes can be at their best in the most important moments of the game and season.

And here is one other point about the Yankees going for pitching once Soto went to the Mets. Fried has won three Gold Gloves in his career, so I’m pretty sure if he is pitching in a World Series elimination game, say a Game 5, and he has the opportunity to get out of a huge jam on a ground ball hit to his left, he will cover first base.

In many ways, Fried will take the heat off Gerrit Cole, and now the Yankees have a true 1-2 punch of aces in Cole and Fried, one righty, one lefty. For too long the Yankees have not built their team to the contours of Yankee Stadium. It is imperative to have an ace lefty at Yankee Stadium. Fried also will take some of the pressure off the Yankees’ overused bullpen, something that seems to happen every season. Fried is 30 and there are arm concerns but isn’t that the case with all starting pitchers nowadays?

The Yankees have other deals to make. I would like to see a legitimate third baseman added, especially because Fried is a ground ball machine and they have a huge hole at first that must be plugged. A lefty hitter must be added. We will see how all that shakes out and if the Yankees trade for big lefty bats Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger. One other quick Yankee point that needs to be said: Since the Yankees offered $760 million to Soto, any talk that a partial deal breaker was that they did not offer a free suite is absolutely ridiculous. C’mon people, do the math.

I do agree though that Soto’s personality can shine more with the Mets simply because the Yankees have always been a button-down organization.

There were other winners at the Winter Wonderland Meetings where $1.3 billion was spent.

The fans I feel sorry for are the teams that have cheapskate owners. There are too many of them around considering the money MLB is making on everything from gambling to the value of franchises constantly rising when most of these owners got in at ground floor prices.

That’s why I credit the Dodgers, they won it all, finally in a full season and they have kept the pedal to the metal signing Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal. The Red Sox, who are sitting on all their money, did not land Soto but did trade for lefty Garrett Crochet from the White Sox, a deal like the one they made in 2016 for Chris Sale. History does repeat itself quite often in baseball. I believe the White Sox got a good one in prospect catcher Kyle Teel, so this could work out for both teams. The Red Sox had to make some kind of first step after basically mailing it in since trading away Mookie Betts after the 2019 season.

To me, the biggest move left to be made is signing Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. Mark my words, his talent is extraordinary. And he is young, only 23. The Padres would be the perfect landing spot for Sasaki. Corbin Burnes is a big one too and it is a must for the Giants to lock him up in a deal if they want to be relevant in the NL West.

As for free agent Alex Bregman, he should remain in Houston. It would be a tough one to swallow to see the Yankees wind up with someone from the cheating Astros.

All in all, this was a wonderful Winter Meetings and got people talking baseball again after last year’s snoozer of a Winter Meetings.

Keep spending money owners, that is what makes it a Winter Wonderland.