Soto in spotlight as World Series opens on his 26th birthday with baseball abuzz about his future

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Once again, Juan Soto is at Dodger Stadium with all of baseball talking about his future.

His first time came before the All-Star Game in July 2022. Soto was surrounded by reporters in the Center Field Plaza and questioned over his decision to turn down Washington's $440 million, 15-year offer - what would have been the biggest deal in baseball history. Hours later, the 23-year-old won the Home Run Derby.

"That was crazy," Soto recalled Thursday.

He was back in New York Yankees gray on an even grander World Series stage, and the buzz around his next prodigious payday persisted ahead of Game 1 on Friday - his 26th birthday.

"Just give him as much money as you possibly can," teammate Clarke Schmidt said, sitting about 100 feet away. "I think money talks. So whatever he needs, I think you've got to make it happen."

Soto was traded to San Diego two weeks after that All-Star Game and then to New York last December. Now, on the eve of the first Yankees-Dodgers World Series since 1981, he was asked about his looming free agency and the possibility of $600 million offers. Like he did 27 months earlier, he avoided direct answers and deflected to agent Scott Boras.

"Scott has been doing a really good job," Soto said. "He's been taking all the bullets and everything. I'm just focused on playing baseball right now."

Soto and Aaron Judge have become manager Aaron Boone’s favorite combo, a historic batting order portmanteau. They filled the Nos. 2 and 3 slots in 153 games, a franchise record that topped the 145 games of Joe Dugan and Babe Ruth in 1923, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Those Yankees won the team’s first title, and Soto and Judge seek No. 28.

"I think he's loving being here and being part of this team and knowing what's at stake and what he has an opportunity to do," Boone said before the Yankees postseason opener. "He obviously came in here with a ton of attention and all the attention that goes with him being a free agent at the end of the year, and you've never felt that. It's been about being part of this team, and he's fit in perfectly."

After arriving at spring training wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed "The Generational Juan Soto," Soto hit .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks. He’s batting .333 with three homers, eight RBIs and seven walks in nine postseason games.

"It seems like the bigger the at-bat, the bigger the moment, he does have a knack for seizing that moment," Soto said.

Soto credited welcoming teammates for establishing an environment to thrive.

"They really make it easy for me," he said. "That's why I feel really comfortable where I'm at and I know how happy I am right now."

Boras is billing Soto to clubs as "The Greatest Surplus Value in Free Agent History."

When Soto helped Washington win its first title in 2019, he joined Mickey Mantle as the only players with seven RBIs in a World Series at age 21 or younger. Soto hit a tying homer onto Minute Maid Park’s left-field train tracks and a two-run double in Game 1 off Gerrit Cole, who starts the opener for the Yankees.

"It's kind of tough to compete against sometimes when the big dogs are doing their thing," said Cole, who had won 19 consecutive decisions.

Soto added a go-ahead homer off Justin Verlander in Game 6 and a two-out RBI single in the eighth inning of Game 7 as Washington became the first Series champion to win four road games. Three years later, he hit a tying, seventh-inning single in Game 4 of the NL Division Series for San Diego against the Dodgers and a tiebreaking, two-run homer in Game 4 of the Championship Series against Philadelphia.

"He has the ability to have a hyper-focus in key pressure situations to where he is most optimal and he can exhibit his greatest skills in key moments," Boras said. "That really elevates the probability of a team winning a championship and thereby provides an owner with what he most covets and certainly increases the value of players who can deliver that.”

With the Yankees, Soto hit a go-ahead homer in the AL Championship Series opener against Cleveland and a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the 10th inning that won the pennant against the Guardians in Game 5 last weekend. He fouled off a pair of sliders and a pair of changeups, then drove a Hunter Gaddis fastball over the center-field wall.

"That's an at-bat for the ages," Boone said. "A couple of uncomfortable-looking swings in there, where he just kind of spoiled and stayed alive, kind of fights himself back and finally gets a pitch in and does what Juan does with it."

Soto became a Bronx fan favorite from opening day, serenaded by the Bleacher Creatures and reflecting in the adoration of New York’s large Dominican community.

“I've been really thankful for them and really happy that they have my back the whole year,” Soto said.

Carefully choosing his words, Soto wouldn’t say whether contentment eclipses cash as a free-agency factor.

"Definitely every player wants to be happy where they are," he said. "At the end of the day, whenever you win, you're really going to be happy."

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