It¡¯d be tough to come up with any bigger kickoff to the Winter Meetings than the news that the Mets have signed Juan Soto to the largest contract in baseball history, a stunning 15-year, $765 million deal. With the news breaking late Sunday night, it¡¯s fair to say you¡¯ll see a long line for coffee in all those Dallas hotel lobbies Monday morning: It¡¯s quite a launch for what was already going to be an incredibly busy week.

But while the Mets can claim the spoils of Soto for the next decade-and-a-half, it may be just as fascinating to see what other teams are deeply affected by the Soto signing, teams that, in the wake of such a mammoth move, suddenly have some big questions of their own to answer. Here are five teams, now that Soto is a Met, who are very much on the spot.

Yankees
Obviously. The ramifications of missing out on Soto, who will end up making but a mere cameo in a Yankees uniform (2024 highlights of Soto in pinstripes are going to look particularly absurd and incongruous come, like, 2038), are almost overwhelmingly mammoth for the Yankees. In the immediate term, they no longer have one of the best players in baseball, one who was a perfect fit next to Aaron Judge (who, we remind, is 6 1/2 years older than Soto) and one who, in that one season he played in the Bronx, was one of the main reasons they reached their first World Series in 15 seasons. The Yankees¡¯ lineup was already barely hanging in with Judge and Soto; they look, in many ways, like a one-man band right now. They¡¯ll be aggressive, surely, to fill in around the margins, but this team already looks substantially worse in 2025. But the bigger worry may be long term. The Yankees just lost their star, in his prime, to the Mets, a crosstown rival that is flexing some big financial muscles and is clearly trying to make New York City a Mets town the way it was in the mid-¡®80s. Judge is 32; Gerrit Cole is 34; Giancarlo Stanton is 35. Who is the future of this franchise? Who¡¯s the Mets¡¯ best player in five years? The Mets know the answer to this question. The Yankees have no idea. The Yankees just made the World Series. But this could be an existential crisis moment for the entire franchise.

Blue Jays
The Jays, reportedly one of the finalists for Soto, always felt quixotic suitors for him in the first place, included more out of ambition, even desperation, rather than logical fit. It was as if they felt like they had to take a swing at Soto after coming so close to getting Shohei Ohtani last year. But now that they didn¡¯t get him ¡­ what in the world is going to happen to the Jays? They resisted the temptation to start a rebuild last year, opting instead to hold onto Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette and make one last big run in 2025. But this is still a team that finished in last place in 2024 that, if they get off to a slow start next season, may finally kick off that rebuild. If the Jays didn¡¯t get Soto, and they can¡¯t re-sign Vlad Jr. -- and it¡¯s up in the air whether missing out on Soto makes that more likely to happen, or less -- and 2025 doesn¡¯t turn out the way they¡¯re hoping ¡­ are we even going to recognize the Jays in 2026?

Phillies
Here the Phillies are, just trying to hold all their veterans together as they try to grab an elusive World Series title for them before they get too old and it¡¯s too late, and not only do they have to stave off the juggernaut Braves, now they¡¯ve got a Mets team that¡¯s going out and adding Juan freaking Soto for a team that, to remind, just beat them in the playoffs last year. Life just got that much harder for the Phillies, and that much more urgent too. The 2025 Braves can¡¯t be nearly as injury cursed as the 2024 Braves were, the Nationals are actually going to be a lot better (and a full decade younger) and now the Mets are showing just how serious they really are. And, as with the Yankees, this is a problem moving forward too. The Mets just announced that they¡¯re all-in to win a World Series every year for the next 15 seasons. That ups the ante for the Phillies substantially. The Phillies need to win a World Series with their current core, and if they don¡¯t ¡­ they may have a rebuild or two of their own to do at some point over the length of Soto¡¯s contract. Everything just got harder for the Phillies.

Red Sox
Despite a lot of rumors in the waning days before Soto¡¯s signing, the Red Sox don¡¯t appear to have been second in the Soto sweepstakes, or even really all that close. But that they were a part of it at all bodes well for a team that looks like it¡¯s ready to start spending money and getting a little bit more serious about, you know, being the Red Sox we all thought we knew. Of course, we¡¯ll know that for sure when they end up winning one of these bidding wars. The Red Sox still need a big bat, or maybe two, for 2025 and for several years after that; it¡¯s strange seeing them without them, all told. There aren¡¯t that many guys available for them. But there is good news: They don¡¯t have to worry about Soto being a Yankees for the next 15 years.

Dodgers
Well, they can¡¯t get everybody. The Dodgers¡¯ push for Soto, such as it was, may have been just to push his price up -- though of course they could have used him, who couldn¡¯t use Juan Soto? -- but the Dodgers now have to deal with a new reality: The team with the highest payroll, the one who has brought in all the big names of late, has someone who will quite definitively outbid them if there¡¯s someone they want badly enough. The Dodgers have succeeded in large part because of their ability to cultivate and recognize talent, but let¡¯s not kid ourselves: They¡¯ve also succeeded because they can outspend anyone if they have to. With the Mets giving Soto this kind of money, that¡¯s no longer obvious. There may be a new spending sheriff in town.