Report: NY Yankees Have Detailed, Multi-Player Backup Plan If Soto Leaves

If the New York Yankees don't re-sign Juan Soto, there's no telling how bad the fan reaction will be in the Bronx (well, actually, there is—it'll be brutal). And if they lose him to the crosstown Mets? Don't even go there.

But according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Yankees have a significant multi-player backup plan in place if Soto leaves.

It's pretty aggressive, and it would look like this:

Sign free agent 1B Christian Walker
Sign one of Willy Adames or Alex Bregman as free agent to play 3B
Shift Jazz Chisholm to 2B
Trade for center fielder Cody Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs
Sign one of the top free agent pitchers Corbin Burnes, Max Fried or Blake Snell with leftover money that Soto turned down

That's a pretty hefty backup plan, and it would take something like that to pacify the angry fans at the loss of Soto. But if you look at that massive haul logically, it would more than makeup for the void that Soto would leave in the lineup.

Free agent shortstop Adames has agreed that he would consider a move to third base for the right situation, and Chisholm came up as a second baseman with Miami, it's his natural position.

As for Bellinger, the Cubs have made him available on the trade market after he picked up his $27.5 million player option for the 2025 season.