Soto the lone Yankees free agent to get qualifying offer

NEW YORK -- The Yankees extended a qualifying offer to Juan Soto ahead of the deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Monday, a move that ensures the club would receive a compensatory pick in next year’s MLB Draft should the outfielder sign with another club.

Soto is certain to decline the qualifying offer, which is valued at $21.05 million. It would represent a pay cut from the $31 million he earned from the Yankees this past season and falls well shy of a potentially record-setting contract he may seek in free agency.

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The 26-year-old Soto was one of 13 MLB players to receive a qualifying offer on Monday -- the only Yankee.

Soto had a slash line of .288/.419/.569 in 157 regular-season games this past season, setting career highs in runs (128), hits (166), home runs (41), total bases (328) and extra-base hits (76).

Following the Yankees’ Game 5 loss in the World Series, Soto said that he was looking forward to embracing the free-agency process and that the Yankees would not necessarily have an advantage over any other clubs.

“I don’t know what teams want to come after me, but definitely, I’ll be open to this and every single team,” Soto said. “I don’t have any doors closed or anything like that. I’m going to be available for all 30 teams.”

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Speaking with reporters at the General Managers Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said that the club also considered issuing a qualifying offer to second baseman Gleyber Torres.

“We definitely had discussions whether we should or shouldn’t,” Cashman said. “We’re charged with evaluating everything and ultimately we chose not to, and now he’s a free agent. We’ll see obviously what the future brings.”

Torres, who turns 28 in December, rescued his season with a strong second half that allowed him to finish with a slash line of .257/.330/.378. In 154 games, Torres scored 80 runs and collected 26 doubles, 15 homers, 63 RBIs and 65 walks.

“He was great for us in the second half, more representative of the type of player that we know he is,” Cashman said. “Him swinging the bat as well as he was, especially down the stretch, was [one of the reasons] why we got as far as we did.”