Juan Soto is about to hear the cost of signing with the Mets.
He received $765 million, none deferred, $75 million as a signing bonus and a no-trade clause.
He received a 15-year commitment from an organization with which he said he had “the best chance” of winning championships for the duration of his contract, believing the Mets had a brighter future than the Yankees. He notably received a luxury suite and just about anything else Steve Cohen could give him.
And he spent all of his goodwill built up across boroughs.
The same fans who last year fell in love with the superstar, who chanted “Re-sign Soto” and begged Hal Steinbrenner to do whatever it would take to secure him, have turned firmly against a player who turned down $760 million, immortality in Monument Park and the next-level fame that would come with playing on the biggest platform in baseball.
The Yankees have been on the road for the past week, so their fans’ voices will be fresh for what promises to be a unique and guttural shower of boos.
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“I don’t mind,” Soto said Wednesday after his Mets said goodbye to the Pirates and before they head to The Bronx for the most anticipated series on the calendar beginning Friday.
The last time Soto was at Yankee Stadium, he put the finishing touches on a magical postseason run — a 1.101 OPS in 14 games, including the home run in Cleveland that sent the Yankees to the World Series — but he was let down by teammates who unraveled in the Game 5 collapse to the Dodgers.
In the aftermath of a remarkable season ending — one in which Yankees fans were entranced by his swing and shuffle, Soto owning his own cheering section in right field, looking natural hitting in front of Aaron Judge and enjoying the best individual season of his career — Soto essentially announced that the Yankees did not hold an edge over any other team.
The Yankees brought in Soto to win the World Series, which did not work. If part of the hope was that one year in pinstripes would sell Soto on life as a Yankee, this also did not work.
“I feel every team has the same opportunity,” Soto said Oct. 30. “I don’t want to say anybody has an advantage.”
Thus began about six weeks of negotiations that culminated in a 16-year, $760 million offer from the Yankees that would have broken records and yet was not enough, in large part because the Mets offered more of just about everything.
Soto has been tested repeatedly through a career in which he debuted at just 19, won a World Series at 20, has been traded twice and performed on the biggest stages repeatedly.
Now he will face a different kind of opponent: a jilted ex.
“I’m prepared for anything that they bring up,” Soto said. “So whatever they bring over, I want to embrace it and to enjoy it as much as I can.”
He is aware that he generally will be greeted with venom. He is also aware he built memories with Yankees fans, and the team itself has rebuilt well (notably with Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger) without him.
Soto said he is on good terms with Aaron Judge, the two having talked toward the beginning of the season.
“You never know,” Soto said of the reception. “Yankees fans, I know some are mad. Some are sad. Some are happy.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to be over there.”
It will be loud. It will be chaotic. It will be largely spiteful.
“It’ll be exciting,” was Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s thought.
It will be something that Soto — who has gone from The Bronx to Queens, from a Yankees hero to a very well-paid villain at the Stadium, from an AL front-runner to an NL front-runner — has never experienced before.
He thinks he’s ready.
“I think it’s going to be fun,” Soto said. “I mean, two first-place teams going against each other. I think it’s going to be fun.”