KANSAS CITY, MO — Not long into what promised to be an eventful offseason, the Kansas City Royals learned that they had been eliminated from the list of teams pursuing free agent outfielder Juan Soto after he asked for more than the $50,000 per year and Amazon gift card the team had offered.
With the team in need of a power-hitting outfield bat and Soto hitting the open market after another outstanding season, the pairing had seemed to be a perfect match, but due to the Royals' small market budgetary constraints, the club's offer fell just short of the $660 million-plus contract Soto was looking to sign.
"We put our best offer out there, but it just wasn't enough," said Royals General Manager J.J. Picollo. "We knew the initial offer of the 50K per season might not get his attention, but we had hoped that tossing in the Amazon gift card would really sway him. We haven't offered anything like that on top of base salary to any player before. Sometimes you just have to throw up your hands and ask yourself, ‘What more could this guy possibly want?'"
Though Soto and his agent, Scott Boras, declined to comment, a source close to the negotiations said the former Yankee believed he could find something better from another team. "The Amazon gift card was tempting," the insider said. "But Juan is confident that signing for something closer to $700 million is the better option."
At publishing time, Kansas City had reportedly made one last-ditch attempt to sign Soto by also offering a free six-month subscription to Hulu.
Citing concerns about stiff competition from Amazon and an impossible-to-please Gen Z, Santa has announced he's hanging up the hat for good.
