New York Mets v New York Yankees / Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

From long before the offseason bell rang, the prevailing assumption was that the New York Mets would finally hop in the ring with the New York Yankees this offseason, ready to go 30 rounds over 26-year-old free agent mega-star Juan Soto.

Steve Cohen, before the days of David Stearns, graciously bowed out of the Aaron Judge chase out of cross-city deference to Hal Steinbrenner. But this would NOT be the same. NOTHING would EVER be the same. Cohen’s pockets and Stearns’ creativity were ready to go FULL THROTTLE and swarm the Yankees at their own game.

Unless … Stearns actually values his own creativity over unnecessarily frontloading his offseason with gobs of money headed one singular man’s way?

The argument for the Mets swiping Soto is obvious; the slugger loves the city and the spotlight, and the team with deeper pockets has a higher chance of offering generational “F You” money and setting the type of free agent precedent that Soto seeks. But the argument against is also clear; the Mets had a Grimace-fueled rager last October, but they’re losing a good degree of the non-Lindor-and-Vientos infrastructure. They have to replace Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, and Luis Severino, and they likely will … but that will either involve spending well over $1 billion in total (possible!) or spreading the wealth around.

Plus, the Yankees remain the sport’s gold standard historic franchise, while the Mets have a bit of a checkered past (understatement), but a bright future. In order to secure Soto’s services, the Mets might have to be comfortable going above and beyond the point of rationality.

Either that, or they could use their finances to simply be annoying, a theory we haven’t really seen posited until Bob Nightengale’s column filed after he arrived at the GM Meetings on Monday.

Yankees Rumors: We sure David Stearns, Mets really want Juan Soto?

But don’t take it from us! Take it from Nightengale, the first person we’ve seen working a pro-Yankees angle here in months:

“Now, it’s in the hands of David Stearns, president of baseball operations, who has shown no inclination to spend wildly.

“If Cohen wanted someone to simply write checks, he could have hired anyone. He hired Stearns to build a team like the Dodgers, a team that consistently wins and is deeper than any other organization in the game. This is why they told Alonso to feel free to look around and see if he can get more than the $150 million they thought he was worth this summer. It’s also why some executives believe the Mets might want to drive up the price for Soto but may not be one of the most serious suitors.”

Now, for all Yankees fans taking an early victory lap at this insinuation, don’t lose the comparison between the Mets and Dodgers in the weeds. The goal for that team in Flushing is sustainable, high-payroll contention. Just because they might end up losing the Soto bidding (and also might not!) does not mean they’re going away.

They’ll be here for the long haul. And, when the dust settles, they might be thankful they saddled the Yankees with the old-school bloated deal while they maintained flexibility and hit on multiple targets. But we’d still have Juan Soto. Let’s call it a draw.