I mean, their fan base is starting to getting hyped up for Soto. If they don't reel in this big fish, people aren't going to be happy. And it's going to be another avalanche of "The Sox don't want to spend", "The Sox aren't serious", "Henry is cheap", "Henry only cares about Liverpool or the Penguins or his golf team or his racing team or his potential NBA franchise or being a real estate tycoon".
Signing Soto would improve the credibility of this franchise to a lot of folks in New England.
I agree with this to an extent. If they don't get Soto, the fan base will be unhappy, but if they come away with Fried, Crochet, Teoscar, and a top bullpen arm (as an example), I think the fanbase will still be satisfied with the offseason and buy into ownership's commitment to winning. If they miss out on Soto and the offseason ends up with something like Eovaldi and some other spare parts, ownership will be (rightfully) crucified. I also think for this reason, I disagree with anyone arguing they are pursuing Soto just for PR purposes to tell the fanbase they tried. In a vacuum, and considering the past few offseasons and state of the fanbase, I think never being reported to pursue Soto would go over better than getting the fanbase excited and missing out on him (as mentioned above, the excitement/disappointment will also depend greatly on other moves).
As a bit of wish casting and devil's advocate, Cohen/NYM surely has
some limit. Otherwise, why did they not offer Yamamoto $400 million (or whatever necessary to get him) last offseason? Or sign every big FA available? I get that the Mets did not think they would compete this past season, but if Cohen has truly limitless pockets (as some are acting like he does), then he could sign every big FA, keep the ones who are doing well, pay off the ones he doesn't want, etc. (I acknowledge he did do this in a way with Verlander and Scherzer). I also hold out hope that maybe in Cohen's first year as an owner he thought it was easy enough to just buy a championship and maybe once he learned it does not quite work that way, he will not be as eager to just pour endless sums into the team. Yes, Cohen has deeper pockets than anyone else. And maybe Soto is his white whale. But he is someone with a financial background, and I think he may be more calculated and actually have limits as opposed to the blank check some are acting like he will present Soto.
Finally, if I'm correct on the income tax, MA is 9% and NY is 10.9% (CA is 13.3%), so perhaps even if the Sox come in
slightly lower than NYY/NYM their offer can actually be more or less financially equivalent.