Inside The Mets

Yankees' Gerrit Cole makes light of Juan Soto's historic Mets contract

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole is the most recent of Juan Soto's former teammates to speak about his Mets contract.
Grant Young|
Oct 30, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) reacts after a play during the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the 2024 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Oct 30, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) reacts after a play during the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the 2024 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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Several New York Yankees pitchers have spoken about Juan Soto and his historic contract with the New York Mets over the past few days.

Initially, it was Yankees lefty Carlos Rodón, who said "I'm happy for Juan. Juan was a good friend and was a great teammate. He's a class act and he's a great Yankee, too," when asked about his decision.

"Would I have liked him to stay here with us? Yeah. Selfishly, yeah for sure. But I'm happy for Juan... and hopefully, it all works out for him, and he performs well. I'm a Juan Soto fan until he steps in the box against our team," he added, per SNY.

A bit later on, New York reliever Luke Weaver said, "Just happy for [Soto] and his career. I'm happy that he was able to get what he felt was the best value for himself. Obviously hate to see him go... "We'll just battle it out in the field now and keep it friendly off the field. But for now, he's a friendly enemy, but in the box he's going to be the enemy," per SNY.

One day later, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was asked about Soto's contract when speaking with the media.

"It's large," Cole said of Soto's contract with a smile, per SNY. "It's a very large amount of money. But it's hard to underestimate great players, it's hard to underestimate Scott [Boras], too. I mean, he does a good job at what he does.

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"It is a large number, it is a historic contract. It's good for all players and good for the game. Obviously, the Mets and the Mets fanbase are thrilled about it too," Cole continued. "It was exciting... I think the anticipation was always about how high [the contract] was gonna get, so definitely an exciting run."

Major props to Cole, Weaver, and Rodón for giving Soto his well-deserved flowers after he elected to leave their team this offseason.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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