This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

For the Red Sox, signing Soto would show the baseball world they are once again a player in the free-agent market. We’ve been here before. In 2000, the Red Sox signed Manny Ramirez to an eight-year, $160 million contract that shocked the baseball world. Manny proved to be worth the price, eventually winning a pair of World Series titles.

Certain sources have Boston as the favorite to land Soto, but take everything this time of year with a big grain of salt.