The Los Angeles Dodgers are one game away from winning this year’s World Series. They are 3-0 up on the New York Yankees and look set to dominate them at their home yet again in Game 4. But the Dodgers may not just return home from New York with the Commissioner’s trophy, but also an excellent outfielder. Yankees outfielder Juan Soto will officially become a free agent after the World Series ends. And according to rumors, the Dodgers are mulling making a move to acquire him.

But MLB insider, ESPN’s Jeff Passan has claimed these rumors are just that- rumors. On being asked by Michael Kay on his ESPN show if he thought the Soto-Dodgers deal would “go hard” for Juan Soto, Passan simply replied with a “Nope.” The insider further explained that while there will undoubtedly be conversations in the Dodgers front office about possibly signing the outfielder because of his caliber, there are a couple of factors that virtually guarantee that Soto won’t sign with the Dodgers.

First, because it doesn’t make sense for the Dodgers financially. This might seem surprising at first glance since this is the same team that signed Shohei Ohtani to the biggest-ever contract in American sports history last year. But, as Passan pointed out, all of the Dodgers’ blockbuster contracts actually have the lion’s share of the money deferred toward the latter half of the contract.

“I think they’ll have conversations but there are a couple of things going on here. Let’s just look at it like this guys. Shohei Ohtani’s contract is ten years and $700 million, the biggest guarantee in North American sports history. But because of all that deferred money, it’s a really good deal for the Dodgers. Mookie Betts’ twelve-year $365 million contract… when you look at the average annual value of that, that’s a really good deal, Freddie Freeman deal, really good deal,” he said.

Passan also reminded Kay and his crew that the Dodgers rarely pay players market price, except for very young players like Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Japanese pitcher, of course, was signed to a $325 million twelve-year contract just last year. “Like the only time the Dodgers have gone and paid retail on a guy is Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And maybe because he was 25… That suggest that they make exceptions for guys who are younger,” Passan added.

To be fair, at 26 years old, Juan Soto is a pretty young yet prime candidate for the Dodgers to pay the ‘retail’ price. Soto’s next contract is estimated to be in the ballpark of $500-600 million. However, that brings us to the second reason Passan doesn’t see the Dominican joining the Dodgers roster next season.

Jeff Passan reveals Juan Soto just doesn’t want to move

Jeff Passan continued and claimed that Juan Soto just doesn’t want to go to California. After all, there is no bigger baseball market nor a more illustrious or more recognizable ball club than the New York Yankees. Passan also pointed out that the West Coast coast was also significantly farther from Soto’s homeland of the Dominican Republic than New York.

“I don’t think he wants to go to California, he’s done that, it’s a really really long way from the Dominican Republic, and [the fact] that he likes New York, yes there will be conversations because of course there will be… But at the end of the day I just don’t see that happening. To me… it’s gonna come down to Yankees/ Mets,” Passan declared.

That is why the insider feels that the outfielder would stay put in New York, choosing one of the two iconic franchises there. Of course, the Mets had the highest payroll in the entire league last year and might be willing to pay Soto the kind of money the Dodgers will probably not. What do you think about Jeff Passan’s take on a potential Juan Soto- LA Dodgers deal? Let us know below.