Juan Soto has been a free agent for exactly two days, and already the rumors are running wild. If there was any doubt about what kind of bidding war was going to happen, Soto put it to rest after the New York Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game 5 of the World Series, remaining conspicuously evasive about his future and telling reporters that all 30 teams would have the chance to convince the outfielder to play for them. Maybe he’ll stay in the Bronx; maybe he’ll join the New York Mets; maybe the Philadelphia Phillies are just lying in wait; maybe he doesn’t hate the West Coast after all, and the Dodgers are inevitable.

Wherever he ends up, there’s one thing we’re sure of: Soto is going to get paid this winter. A player this good, at this age, adapts to every roster and every competitive schedule. Every big hitter in the league is going to go after him, and that’s the kind of competition that agent Scott Boras knows what to do with. Soto’s next contract started at around $500 million last winter and has since grown to $600 million or more.

“But wait,” you may be thinking. “Shohei Ohtani got $700 million, much of it deferred, and he’s an objectively more valuable player than Soto.” Which is, strictly speaking, correct. But this also misses the point: contracts are not determined by meritocracy; they’re determined by leverage, and while Soto isn’t the kind of two-way phenom that Ohtani is, he has all the leverage in the world. So even though he’s not Ohtani as a player, here are four teams that might be willing and able to pay him like he is.

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THE Giantstrue to form, were only mentioned peripherally in the Soto draw. While it’s unlikely that this will finally be the time when San Francisco lands the big free agent they’re so desperately seeking, money certainly won’t be an issue. Blake Snell has already opted out, and if his compatriot Robbie Ray joins him, the Giants will only have $105.3 million in salary committed for 2025. For a team that generated a payroll north of $200 million dollars in the past – and which has a lot of built – in economic benefits – this is a terribly low figure.

Again, it seems unlikely that Soto will commit to a West Coast team mired in mediocrity in recent years. But if you’re looking for a team that could come out of nowhere with a monster offer, even starting with a 7, look no further.

How do we know Blue Jays are you up for an Ohtani-esque number? Well, because they were willing to literally pay Ohtani last winter, until the great flight tracking debacle of 2023 landed him in Dodger blue. But Toronto remains a major player: its ownership group, Rogers Communications, is a massive company with very deep pockets, and the team should desperately put a winner on the field after finishing last and with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are headed to free agency.

If the Jays want to convince one or both of their founding stars to stick around for the long haul, signing Soto would be a great way to show the team’s dedication to winning. And hey, there already have been a little smoke connecting Soto to Toronto in recent weeks.

Let’s start with the obvious: They’re literally the New York Yankees. If any team can afford a $700 million contract, it’s the Bronx Bombers, a franchise valued at around $7.6 billion. According to Hal Steinbrenner’s infuriating protests, this organization is awash in money, and it will be even more so if it continues to go to the World Series with Soto in the outfield.

A Dominican star is tailor-made to play in the Bronx, and there should be no team more motivated to land Soto this winter. Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole aren’t getting any younger, Gleyber Torres is hitting free agency himself and beyond them, there isn’t much emerging talent to speak of on this team. (All due respect to Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe.) If New York loses Soto, things could get awfully uncomfortable in a hurry, and expect Soto and Boras to use that to their advantage. No price should be too high here.

Of course, even though the Yankees are the most desperate team in the running for Soto, they’re not quite the richest. That honor goes to baseball’s richest owner, Steve Cohen of the New York Mets. We know Cohen is ready to fire the money cannon, and with plenty of money coming off the books, team president David Stearns has already hinted at a big offseason ahead. It might take a little something extra to lure Soto away from a team he clearly loved playing with in 2024, and the Mets need to go big if they want to usurp the Yankees at the top of the sporting pecking order once and for all from New York.

The Mets have other holes to fill on this roster, particularly in the starting rotation, and Pete Alonso could leave a gaping hole at first base. But the chance to draft a player like Soto only comes around once a generation or so, and Cohen may not have a better opportunity to propel his franchise into the stratosphere.