The Blue Jays could be used as leverage in the Juan Soto sweepstakes.

May 7, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Sports agent Scott Boras attends the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Miami Marlins at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It’s safe to say that the 2023 offseason did not go as the Toronto Blue Jays had hoped it would. The team and its fans thought Shohei Ohtani was on a plane on his way to Toronto to sign with the Jays before it was revealed that the person on the plane was not Ohtani. He wound up signing a mega-contract to join the Los Angeles Dodgers just hours later.

The Jays appeared to be in it until the end for Ohtani, somewhat unexpectedly, but missed out at the last moment. Whether Ohtani took them seriously or not is something only Ohtani can speak to, but Jays fans certainly have reason to believe that the team was used to drive the price up so Ohtani could sign with the organization he always wanted to from the very start.

Juan Soto is not Shohei Ohtani, but he is this offseason’s biggest free agent. All eyes will be on him, much like they were on Ohtani, until he finally does ink his mega-deal. Whether he gets the $700 million Ohtani got remains to be seen, but Soto is going to fetch one of the largest contracts in sports history.

To little surprise, the Jays are expected to be right in the middle of the Soto sweepstakes. After all, after missing out on Ohtani, they did very little in the offseason, hurting the team tremendously but saving themselves some money. The Jays have the money necessary to sign Soto, the only question is, will that actually happen? Will Soto take the Jays seriously?

Based on what his agent, Scott Boras, had to say about the Blue Jays organization, there’s reason to believe that the Jays might be getting set up to play free-agent patsy once again.

Blue Jays fans shouldn’t be surprised if the team is used as leverage to drive Juan Soto price

“But the idea of it is that there is really no ownership group that has that level of investment and then distribution to a nation unilaterally in 40 million people,” Boras continued. “So it’s a sports entertainment juggernaut and should be viewed as such.”

No ownership group has that level of investment? It’s a sports entertainment juggernaut? Boras went above and beyond to complement Blue Jays ownership. It almost feels as if he’s doing too much, going too far out of his way, to get the Jays to feel confident enough that they’ll sign Soto before he eventually ends up elsewhere. Ohtani went as far as to tour Toronto’s Spring Training complex last offseason, appearing to show genuine interest before spurning the Jays. This could be something similar, when considering how rare it is for Boras to be this complementary about an organization.

“I can just say that this is about owner commitment,” he said, “it’s about illustrating to Juan Soto that his objectives are going to be met, about wanting to win and win consistently because that’s what makes the game fun for him and motivates him.”

Boras said that while he won’t discuss current teams being linked to Soto, he spoke about how important ownership commitment is when a player like Soto is available. From what Boras said prior about Jays ownership, it sounds like they check every box. However, so do several other potential suitors. Even with how much Boras seems to like Blue Jays ownership, it doesn’t feel as if they’re favored or close to it in the Soto sweepstakes.

Can the Jays sign Soto? Absolutely. Until that happens, though, there’s reason to be skeptical. Blue Jays fans have seen their organization be used as leverage before. Boras getting the organization excited by sweet talking just to let them down again by getting Soto a deal elsewhere feels like it’s absolutely in the cards.