Perhaps we should wait a respectful few minutes before we Nah. Forget that. The door is open wide. The windows are open wider. The minute that Walker Buehler got Alex Verdugo to wave at that slider in the dirt about 20 minutes before midnight Wednesday, one kind of baseball season ended and another began. The calendar has flipped. Most years it says November at the top of the page. We know better. And were certainly about to know even more. Juan Soto in the Yankees dugout after they lost the World Series to the Dodgers on Oct. 30, 2024. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post About Sotovember. The Mets beat the Yankees four times out of four for the season; that was a nice win for the Mets. The Yankees lasted one round further than the Mets this October, and for the first time since 2014 can say theyve been to the World Series more recently. Thats a nice win for the Yankees. More From Mike Vaccaro Suddenly, all of that seems like prologue, like prelim, like preface. Suddenly we are in Sotovember. And soon, the Mets and the Yankees along with a few special guest stars and Phillies, maybe the Giants, maybe one or two of Scott Boras patented mystery teams will see just how all-in all-in really is. Soto had one of the most brilliant walk years anyones ever had. He turned 26 one week ago. And while he may not have shown up for his post-mortem with the pre s early Thursday morning with a Boras Company baseball hat like Gerrit Cole did in Houston in 2019 remember that? for the Yankees, either. Mets owner Steve Cohen during the NLCS at Dodger Stadium. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post I feel every team has the same opportunity, Soto said. I dont want to say anybody has an advantage. Which isnt exactly Joe DiMaggio solemnly declaring, I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee. Besides, a player doesnt hire Boras lest he intends to squeeze every last nickel out of the free agency proce s (see also: ). So we can declare this bizarre bazaar open for busine s. And while those other teams may well have a say in this before its all done, for our purposes, lets just talk about what is about to be the most fascinating and, po sibly, meaningful moment in the entire 62-year relationship Kole Calhoun Jersey between the Mets and the Yankees. Steve Cohen declined to fully engage in the Aaron Judge sweepstakes two years ago, a gentlemanly gesture that almost certainly made Judges choice Yankees or Giants? a little easier. He isnt expected to concede this time and, in fact, looks like a safe bet to start the bidding in a place thats going to make the Yankees wince a little. Thats been the Promise of Cohen from Day 1. He has done over-the-top short-term deals for aging pitchers (Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander). He bestowed 10 years and $341 million on Francisco Lindor, which after this season looks downright economical as he approaches the midway point of the deal. He briefly offered a what-the-hell 12-year, $315 million deal to Carlos Correa before Correas medicals turned up murky. But this? Well, this is almost too perfect, but here is where we quote Bobby Axelrod the Billions character loosely based on Cohen himself: Hal Steinbrenner (right) celebrates the Yankees ALCS triumph with Alex Verdugo. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post Whats the point of having eff-you money, Axe says, if you never say Eff you? See Also world series This has been the eff-you moment Cohen has been waiting for. So in the Mets corner, there is that, there is enough money (as another likely Cohen inspiration, Gordon Gekko, once said) to be talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a $100 million, buddy. A player. Or nothing. (Of course, you can multiply that by at least six, maybe more. For openers.) In the Yankees corner? Well, they arent exactly a team traditionally known for austerity. If the Steinbrenner nest egg isnt quite Cohens, theyre still plenty prosperous enough to sit with Cohen at the high-stakes baccarat table. Also, they are the Yankees, and even if Boras isnt inclined to offer a hometown discount, that might be enough for a tie to go to the runner. Also, there is this: There is very little precedent for any of this. Before last years , the only other time the Mets and Yankees ever went full-bore over the same player it was Dave Winfield in 1980, and while the Mets (under new ownership) were aggre sive, they were still four years away from being even remotely competitive. This mightve been a worthwhile comp on June 3, a day when the Mets fell 11 games under .500 on the same night the Yankees went to 23 games over .500. That feels like le s of an argument now. Juan Soto homers in Game 2 of the World Series. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post But theres also this: When the Yankees and the Mets cro s swords in any way, its almost always the Yankees who come out ahead. In 1976, at the dawn of free agency, George Steinbrenner jumped in with both feet, while the Mets still owned by the Whitneys, one of the richest families ever to live in New York cried poverty. That meant in the same year the Yankees returned to preeminence, the Mets lost Tom Seaver who eventually landed in the Yankees TV booth, of all places. The Yankees made a habit of either rescuing or reviving a string of Mets stars David Cone, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden. Forgetting what became of him, when Alex Rodriguez became a free agent in 2000, he all but sent roses to his childhood team, the Mets, who never even made him an offer. Four years later, he was a Yankee and hit the last 351 of his 696 home runs with them a number 99 more than Strawberrys 252, the Mets all-time leader. Oh? And when the Mets signed the man who, right now, is arguably the best everyday player in their history (Carlos Beltran), Boras made sure to sour the joy by revealing that he tried to go back at the last minute and get the Yankees interested. That was an especially galling moment for the Mets. Really, you could argue the first time the Mets got the better of the Yankees was when they hired Carlos Mendoza off Aaron Boones staff right around this time last year. That was one thing. This would be something else. Tradition, history and a ballpark custom-built for him hint that the Yankees should still be the front-runners here for Soto. They should be favored to win Sotovember. Still, eff-you money is eff-you money. David Justice Jersey