Major threat to Blue Jays' Juan Soto pursuit may be off the board with huge signing

The Major League Baseball offseason hot stove has been simmering for a little while, with some moves made over the last couple of weeks, primarily by the Los Angeles Angels. The big news on Tuesday night, however, came from the other Los Angeles-based franchise.

If you somehow missed the headlines, the Dodgers agreed to a five-year, $182M deal with top left-handed starter Blake Snell, per Juan Toribio of MLB.com.

While Snell's new contract will raise the price of a pair of other top starters the Toronto Blue Jays have been linked to (Max Fried and Corbin Burnes), they might have gained a step in their pursuit of Juan Soto.

Does Dodgers' Blake Snell signing negate a major threat to Blue Jays' Juan Soto pursuit?

There's a chance the Dodgers won't push hard for Soto after agreeing to the first nine-figure deal of the offseason with the two-time Cy Young Award winner Snell. At least, that's what people around baseball are presuming. Anyone not involved with, or rooting for, the Dodgers likely hopes that's the case anyway.

The rich get richer, as the saying goes. But there has to be an end to how much the Dodgers can spend. Right?

While there are five teams known to have made Soto an initial offer, the Dodgers being one of them, USA Today's Bob Nightengale proffered that there are only four teams seriously in play: The New York Mets, the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Jays.

"The Los Angeles Dodgers just won a World Series without Soto, and it wasn’t much of an inconvenience to drive through traffic across town, and meet with Soto and agent Scott Boras," Nightengale wrote on Monday, before the Snell signing. "The meeting helps perhaps drives the price up for Soto ..."

The problem is that it's the Dodgers. Like the Yankees of a previous generation, there seems to be no end to how much they're willing to spend to buy World Series trophies.

As far as dollars go, the Blue Jays have as much money to spend as any other team. They can write Soto a blank cheque to come to Toronto with just two committed contracts on the books after 2026. However, they still might not be the most desirable destination compared to the other already competitive suitors.

From a Blue Jays fan perspective, all we can hope for is that the Snell signing means that there's one less team in serious bidding for Soto's services.

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