If Juan Soto still wanted to be in pinstripes, he’d still be in pinstripes.
“Obviously, he didn’t,” John Sterling, the long-time voice of the Yankees, told WFAN on Wednesday. “The one question I have is, why?”
It marked the retired play-by-play announcer’s first time back on WFAN since calling the final out of the World Series, and the cross-borough Mets’ victory in the Soto sweepstakes was top of mind.
“Please don’t talk about money,” Sterling said. “If the Yankees offered him $750 million and the Mets offered him $760 (million), there’s no difference. You certainly would never see the difference. It’s so much money per year.”
At the risk of talking about money, the Post previously reported that the Yankees offered the 26-year-old Soto a 16-year, $760 million contract.
Soto instead signing with the Mets for 15 years and $765 million, the largest contract in professional sports history.
That deal also included a $75 million signing bonus, along with escalators that can push the deal to $805 million and further incentives.
“The Yankees have the name, and they have a field that’s perfect for Soto,” Sterling said. “A short right field for home runs and a big left center field for singles and doubles, and also the best protector in the game in Aaron Judge.”
Neither the short right field, the big left-center, the 6-foot-7-inch “protector” in Judge or the $760 million offer were enough to entice the outfielder to remain in the Bronx — never mind the fact that Soto’s 2024 campaign with the Yankees was, by most measures, his most productive to date.
Soto finished third in AL MVP voting ( which Judge won) and scored a league-leading 128 runs. The Dominican also set career marks in hits (166), home runs (41) and total bases (328).
In Queens, Soto won’t have Judge batting behind him, though on a star-studded roster that includes Francisco Lindor — and perhaps Pete Alonso, if the Mets retain him — there’s no shortage of firepower.
Sterling can believe that roster-makeup factored into Soto’s decision.
He cannot believe that the Yankee’s refusal to gift his family a suite at Yankee stadium — a concession the franchise has never made for any of their star players, but one which Mets’ owner Steve Cohen didn’t bat an eye at — was the deciding factor.
“There’s a reason he didn’t want to come to the Yankees, and it couldn’t be the suite,” Sterling said. “That’s just too mundane. How much is a suite when you’re making $750 million?”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman echoed that sentiment at the winter meetings on Wednesday, telling reporters, “I don’t think a suite’s a possession arrow one way or the other, [not] when you’re making that kind of money.”
Maybe it wasn’t the suite.
Maybe it wasn’t the overzealous Yankees security guard who haggled with one of Soto’s family members and kept his chef/driver from entering certain areas of the ballpark.
Maybe it wasn’t one extra year under contract, a slightly higher annual average value or a $75 million signing bonus.
Maybe it was, simply, a preference for the No. 7 line over the No. 4.
For better or worse, what’s done is done.