Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Video: Jazz Chisholm Jr. Says Juan Soto Should Get $700M Contract from Yankees

Paul Kasabian

A jubilant Jazz Chisholm Jr. proclaimed that New York Yankees teammate and impending free agent Juan Soto should get a $700 million contract to remain in the Bronx after the Yanks clinched the American League pennant on Saturday evening.

Chisholm made his remarks to YES Network's Meredith Marakovits (25-second mark).

Soto smacked a three-run homer in the top of the 10th inning to help the Yankees defeat the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. New York has now won the AL pennant for the first time since 2009.

Soto arrived in New York via trade from the San Diego Padres last offseason. He's been everything as advertised and then some, hitting 41 home runs to go along with 109 RBI and a .989 OPS. His 128 runs led the American League.

He's turned it up a notch in the playoffs, though. Soto dominated Cleveland, hitting three home runs (with six RBI) alongside a .368 batting average (1.373 OPS).

Now the question is how much Soto will get next year, and from whom.

The New York Post's Jon Heyman reported the new "whisper number" for Soto is $600 million. That would make him the second-highest paid player in baseball history behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani at $700 million.

It would also dwarf the contract that New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge received before the 2023 campaign at nine years and $360 million.

New York will certainly be in the mix for Soto, but the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals are seen as "frontrunners," per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, Sarah Langs and Anthony DiComo. It can only help that the Yankees are AL pennant champs and could win their first World Series in 15 years. Staying with the World Series champions would be a great selling point, of course.

For now, Soto and the Yanks are focused on winning the Fall Classic, which begins Friday. The Yankees will either head to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers or welcome the crosstown rival New York Mets to the Bronx for Game 1.

   

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