The beautiful thing about sport is that there are always reasons to be optimistic.

Only one team wins the World Series, so for 29 other fans, your ability to do mental gymnastics is usually the key to seeing your team in a positive light.

Luckily for New York Yankees fans, I found your solution. It’s bad enough that your team just lost the World Series, but the Dallas Cowboys are also a disaster. You just hate seeing it.

But hey, let’s look on the bright side. Juan Soto is a free agent, and now every rich owner in the league is going to sell him a dream and offer him (probably) more than half a billion dollars.

Wait, that’s not the good part.

The good news is that, according to FanDuel, the Yankees are the favorites to sign him on the dotted line.

Let’s talk more about Soto and the favorites to sign him, according to FanDuel.

HOW MUCH WILL SOTO SIGN FOR

The 26-year-old is expected to sign a lucrative deal this winter, something FanDuel Canada has a deal for and TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips and I reviewed it last week.

Here’s an updated look at those odds.

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WHAT TEAM WILL JUAN SOTO SIGN WITH?

Unique New York, unique New York

New York Yankees

The Yankees are the heavy favorite at -290 to sign Soto for the 2025 MLB season.

New York acquired Soto from the San Diego Padres in a seven-player trade in December 2023. In his lone season with the team, he posted a career-high 128 runs and hit .288, with 41 home runs and 129 walks.

Soto and teammate Aaron Judge were the only two players in baseball to walk more than 120 times this season, with only Kyle Schwarber recording more than 100 and no one else recording more than 85.

The only other team at odds less than 10-1 are the New York Mets at +250.

According to Sportrac.com, the Mets had the highest payroll in baseball in 2024, with a total of $317 million.

Since owner Steve Cohen took a majority stake in the team in October 2021, the Mets have ranked third or higher in team payroll each season.

They currently sit 10th in payroll for 2025, with over $55 million taken out of the books between Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.

THE CHASE PACK

Washington Nationals

The San Francisco Giants (+1,000), Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals (+1,300) round out the top five in this market.

With Buster Posey now the Giants’ president of baseball operations, the move to sign Soto could be just what the franchise needs to become a perennial contender again, as they have only won one playoff series since winning three World Series titles from 2010-2014.

The Dodgers adding Soto would just be unfair. However, despite signing Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million contract last winter, the heavily delayed nature of the deal has caused them to rank fifth in payroll this season, with total salary $30 million less than when they led the league in 2022.

Finally, after being unable to lock down Soto long-term and trading him to the Padres at the 2022 deadline, a return to Washington could make sense for Soto. The question surrounding the Nationals remains one of money, as they have had a payroll in the bottom 12 of the league for three straight seasons.

So you tell me there’s a chance

I’m a Toronto Blue Jays fan. You will never see me deny my bias.

The Jays are the sixth and final team listed in this market with odds less than 30-1.

Coming in at +1700, the Jays could try to make up for their absence of Ohtani last year by getting Soto. Any contract Soto signs with the Blue Jays would break the record for largest contract in franchise history.

George Springer has currently held this title for six years, worth $150 million.

Signing Soto would be the best time of my life as a sports fan, but I won’t bet on the Jays in this market, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they’re even a final contending team.