Gerrit Cole made the strange decision to opt out of his contract with the New York Yankees before deciding to stay with the team… the same four-year, $144 million contract he initially gave up, according to ESPN. Jeff Passan.

According to this report, “Discussions regarding a potential contract extension will continue. Essentially, this is the same as Cole not opting out.”

Well okay then. So, this odd decision aside, where does this leave the team’s payroll heading into the 2025 season?

Per spotracTaking into account arbitration and pre-arbitration estimates, the Yankees currently have $186.4 million in adjusted payroll allocations and $235 million in projected payroll expenses. That’s already a hefty sum, and that’s before you factor in the astronomical cost of keeping Juan Soto if the Yankees can re-sign him.

The belief is that the ground — yes, ground-Soto’s deal is 10 years and $500 million, which means to keep him the Yankees would need to add at least $50 million to their payroll projections for next season, which would put them at around $285 million. This may be at the low end of the projections for Soto’s contract; It will have a vibrant market.

Of course this is possible; The Yankees ranked second in baseball last season with $309.4 million, behind the New York Mets ($317.7 million). The Yankees have enough money off the books to pay Soto a large sum of money, but that could mean the team will have to cut some finances to meet other needs on the roster.

By taking this approach, will the Yankees become a replica of the flashy and powerful but fundamentally unhealthy group that reached the World Series last season, only to lose the Fall Classic in part because of terrible defense and confusing mental errors?

Maybe. But players like Soto (who just turned 26, by the way) don’t come along very often, and pairing him with Aaron Judge gives the Yankees the most dynamic all-star duo in sports. They have no choice but to at least make a good faith effort to re-sign him.