"Juan Soto has a relationship with Bryce Harper, Trea Turner" – Phillies insider not ruling out $500,000,000 Yankees star acquisition in free agency

Juan Soto is expected to become the most sought-after free agent in MLB history this offseason. Although the Philadelphia Phillies' head of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, hinted against acquiring marquee players in the winter, a Phillies insider believes the Phillies have an interest in securing the Dominican superstar's services.

"Everybody's going to talk about Juan Sotohthis off-season. He's the top free agent on the market. [He] might get $500 million. [He] might be worth $500 million. [He] totally changed the Yankees' fortune this year," Corey Seidman said on the latest episode of "Phillies Talk." [19:25].

Per Seidman, the presence of Soto in the Yankees lineup might help them win the World Series. Moreover, he sees Soto's relationship with players and coaches in Philadelphia as a factor that could influence his decision in free agency.

"Juan Soto has a relationship with Bryce Harper, with Trea Turner, and with hitting coach Kevin Long. The Phillies have deep pockets; I wouldn't put it past them to explore it," Seidman added (19:44).

"I mean, they were willing to make a huge offer to Yoshinobu Yamamoto an offseason ago. They're probably better off having not landed Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 300-plus million dollars."

Soto, Harper and Turner were teammates when the trio were with the Washington Nationals. Harper was the first to break away as he moved to the Phillies in 2018. Soto and Turner won the World Series with the Nationals in 2019.

Seidman not too confident about Phillies acquiring Juan Soto

Despite not ruling out a potential acquisition of Juan Soto by the Phillies to strengthen their outfield, Seidman doesn't have hopes high about it.

"While I wouldn't totally rule out the Soto move, I don't think it's a likelihood by any means. I can't see why the Yankees would let him get away, honestly. But there are ways to improve your offense in the outfield, even beyond Juan Soto," Seidman said (20:05).

Veteran MLB insider Jeff Passan appeared on the Dan Patrick Show, claiming Soto might break Shohei Ohtani's record for the biggest sports contract in history.

However, he also said the likelihood of it is fairly low. For Passan, $600,000,000 seemed to be the area around which Soto would get in free agency. $700,000,000 seemed fairly high for the Dominican, per the MLB insider.