"Psychological games Scott Boras plays" - Padres insiders slam super agent for invoking late Peter Seidler as Juan Soto free agency looms
Juan Soto's agent, Scott Boras, reportedly said that Soto would not be playing for the New York Yankees currently if legendary San Diego Padres owner, the late Peter Seidler were still alive.
The Dominican superstar spent a year in San Diego before making a move to the Yankees in December 2023 in a trade that saw the Padres receive Michael King, who is now a key member of their pitching staff.
The Yankees agreed to a huge $31 million salary for Soto for the 2024 season.
Seidler was a beloved figure in San Diego for the Padres faithful. Serving as the chairman since 2020, the investor was committed to making the Friars a formidable outfit.
Following his death in November 2023, the team has worn 'PS' patches to honor Seidler, and a street leading to Petco Park is set to be renamed "Peter Seidler Way."
Speaking to USA Today, Scott Boras said negotiations for Soto's renewal with the Friars were going well, but, as they found themselves in a spot of financial uncertainty following Seidler's death, they decided to let Soto go and redistribute the funds into other departments of the squad.
On October 28's edition of popular radio show "Ben and Woods," Padres insider Ben Higgins talked about Boras' claims, speculating that they were tactics of getting the best possible contract for his client.
"According to Scott Boras, he said he was deep in contract negotiations with the Padres and Peter to extend Soto and keep him in a Padres uniform, that Juan Soto would not have been traded had Peter Seidler still been alive, and went through this extensively, in what both you and I believe are just part of the psychological games that Scott Boras plays for his clients to try to extract maximum value approaching a major free agency." Higgins said [3:44:42]
"But, ultimately, none of this to me, advances the story or can ever really shed any light at what was really going on with Peter Seidler and Scott Boras in the days and weeks before Peter Seidler passed away." Higgins added [3:45:10]
Fellow analyst Steven Woods agreed with Higgins, criticizing Boras' approach of going about it.
"There's potentially only two games left of the World Series, Scott Boras is trying to up Juan Soto's value, which I don't know how necessary it is, everybody knows how valuable Juan Soto's going to be." Woods said [3:46:10]
"But, he's also trying to raise the price on the New York Yankees, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. It's business 101, that's just how it goes, it's what you do. It's gross that Boras does this now, and it's gross to me, that he invokes the name of Peter Seidler, it's unnecessary." Woods added [3:46:20]
Juan Soto has shown his quality in the postseason so far
After a fantastic regular season in 2024, where he batted .288, with 41 homers and 109 RBIs, Juan Soto has carried over the momentum into the postseason. In playoff games in 2024, the Dominican has an impressive .350 batting average, with nine RBIs and four home runs, the latest of which was the tying run in game two of the World Series.
Despite being relatively young, Soto has experience of getting the job done during the business end of a campaign, having won his first and only World Series title so far in 2019 with the Washington Nationals, aged only 21.
Soto has now matured into one of the best hitters on the planet, and finds himself back at the biggest stage again. Yankees fans will be hoping for a repeat of 2019's outcome, with Soto lifting the Commissioner's Trophy at the end of the season once again.