Can the Los Angeles Dodgers sign Juan Soto and reunite him with Shohei Ohtani?

Juan José Soto Pacheco has shined since his arrival to the New York Yankees, after the agreement they reached with the San Diego Padres, but we must remember that his contract ended with the Dodgers' winning the World Series championship; so the player will try his luck in free agency.

The Dominican outfielder solidified himself with great statistics in the regular season, maintaining a batting average of .288/.419/.569 with 41 home runs, 109 RBIs, and 128 runs scored.

In the postseason, he continued to show great progress. With an OPS of 1.160, he has hit four home runs and has a batting line of .429/.556/.857.

Reasons why several teams are interested in acquiring his services, given the lack of an agreement to stay with the ‘Bronx Bombers’; according to information from renowned insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Los Angeles Dodgers would be very interested in signing Juan Soto.

But can they really pay him the million-dollar salary the player asks for?

The Dodgers had a clear goal: to reach the World Series and get a championship ring, and they had achieved it, so before the start of the season, they made an unprecedented investment, with the arrival of key pieces that revolutionized their performance on the diamond. Proof of this was the signing of Japanese Shohei Ohtani, who, after finishing his contract with Los Angeles Angels, joined the Californians for 10 years in exchange for $700 million dollars since the beginning of last December; Ohtani chose to defer the 68 million dollars a year that he would receive so that the Dodgers management could put together a comPetitive roster. The Japanese will receive 680 million dollars when his contract with the Dodgers ends, with 68 million each year from 2034 to 2043.

Also added was the arrival of pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who arrived from the Tampa Bay Rays, who signed a five-year contract for $136.5 million dollars. Likewise, Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, debuting in the MLB after his successful career with the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball and who signed a 12-year contract for $325 million dollars. With only three players, the Los Angeles team committed the monstrous amount of $1,161 million dollars, which clearly showed that they wanted to achieve a new crown in the MLB.

The 2024 MLB payroll totaled $339.8 million in salaries (second-most in MLB), with Tyler Glasnow ($32.5 million), Mookie Betts ($30 million), Freddie Freeman ($27 million), Teoscar Hernandez ($15 million), Max Muncy ($14.5 million), Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($14.1 million), Chris Taylor ($13 million each), and Will Smith ($13 million each), plus Clayton Kershaw ($10 million). Plus the $2 million a year Ohtani gets under the aforementioned deal.

By keeping Ohtani on Ohtani’s deferred salary, there is a chance of being able to sign a top offensive player, as Juan Soto has proven to be, and who, according to reports, has expressed his desire to reach a figure close to 600 million dollars; The Dodgers will have to think carefully about whether the Dominican is the piece that best adapts to the performance of the franchise.