Yankees GM Brian Cashman credited managing partner Hal Steinbrenner and the whole Steinbrenner family for making the Juan Soto deal happen, and word is, Hal was indeed a driving force behind this trade, in which the Yankees gave up four talented young pitchers plus catcher Kyle Higashioka.
“It’s not often you can say that one player can significantly impact a ball club, and increase their chances of winning a championship. You can say that in this case, however,” Steinbrenner emailed The Post in response. “For all the reasons that anyone who has followed his career knows, we are excited to have Juan in the Bronx!”
Word is all the rank-and-file baseball people in the Yankees’ room also supported Steinbrenner’s deal, even though they wound up coming close to acceding to Padres GM A.J. Preller’s most recent ask, which had him sending pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito along with Higashioka plus two more minor leaguers for Soto and Trent Grisham. (The Yankees wound up agreeing to all but the extra two minor leaguers.)
There was a word or two of caution in the Yankees’ midst (some believe Preller had little choice but to move Soto, and to the Yankees’ credit, they had the stash of young pitchers like few others). They could have waited it out, and hoped the price fell (although the Shohei Ohtani losers might have dived in then). But this was an offer Steinbrenner felt they couldn’t refuse.
“This is something [Hal’s] father would do, just say screw it,” one rival executive said.
His father might also have made sure they keep Soto long term, but that’s going to be more difficult.
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