Maybe we should wait a few respectful minutes before we…

No. Forget that. The door is wide open. The windows are open wider. The moment Walker Buehler let Alex Verdugo swing at that slider in the mud about 20 minutes before midnight Wednesday, one kind of baseball season ended and another began. The calendar has turned. Most years it says ‘November’ at the top of the page.

We know better. And we will certainly know more.

About Sotovember.

The Mets beat the Yankees four out of four times this season; that was a nice win for the Mets. The Yankees lasted one round longer than the Mets in October and can say they have recently been to the World Series for the first time since 2014. That’s a nice win for the Yankees.

Suddenly it all seems like a prologue, a preface, a foreword.

Suddenly we are in Sotovember.

And soon the Mets and the Yankees — along with a few special guest stars like the Dodgers and Phillies, maybe the Giants, maybe one or two of Scott Boras’ patented “mystery teams” — will see how all-in, all-in really is.

Soto had one of the most brilliant runs anyone has ever had. A week ago he turned 26. And while he may not have shown up for his post-mortem with the press early Thursday morning wearing a Boras Company baseball cap, like Gerrit Cole did in Houston in 2019 – remember? – he didn’t exactly pledge his immediate and eternal loyalty to the Yankees, either.

“I feel like every team has the same opportunity,” Soto said. “I don’t want to say that anyone has an advantage.”

That’s not exactly how Joe DiMaggio solemnly declares, “I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.”

Moreover, a player does not hire Boras for fear of squeezing every last cent out of the free agency process (see also: Alonso, Peter).

So we can declare this bizarre bazaar open. And while those other teams may have a say in this before it’s all done, for our purposes, let’s just talk about what’s going to be the most fascinating — and possibly meaningful — moment in the Mets’ entire 62-year relationship. and the Yankees.

Steve Cohen declined to fully participate in the Aaron Judge sweepstakes two years ago, a friendly gesture that almost certainly made Judge’s choice: Yankees or Giants? – a little easier. He’s not expected to budge this time around, and in fact it seems like a safe bet to start the bidding in a spot that will make the Yankees wince a little.

That has been Cohen’s promise from day one. He has made exaggerated short-term deals for older pitchers (Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander). He gave 10 years and $341 million to Francisco Lindor, which looks downright cheap after this season as he approaches the halfway point of the deal. He briefly offered Carlos Correa a twelve-year, $315 million deal before Correa’s medical records proved unclear.

But this?

Well, this is almost too perfect, but here we are quoting Bobby Axelrod – the ‘Billions’ character loosely based on Cohen himself.

“What’s the point of having eff-you money,” says Ax, “if you never say ‘Eff-you’?”

This was the eff-you moment Cohen has been waiting for. So in the Mets’ corner, there’s plenty of money (as another likely Cohen inspiration, Gordon Gekko, once said) to “talk about.” liquid. Rich enough to have your own plane. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.”

(Of course, you can multiply that by at least six, maybe more. For openers.)

In the Yankees corner? Well, they’re not exactly a team traditionally known for cutting corners. If the Steinbrenner nest egg isn’t all Cohen’s, they’re still plenty wealthy enough to sit with Cohen at the high-stakes baccarat table. Plus, it’s the Yankees, and even if Boras isn’t inclined to offer a hometown discount, that could be enough to move a tie to the runner.

There’s also this:

There is little precedent for any of this. Before last year’s mutually ill-fated pursuit of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the only other time the Mets and Yankees ever went all out on the same player was Dave Winfield in 1980, and while the Mets (under new ownership) were aggressive, they were. it’s still four years before we can be even remotely competitive. This might have been a valuable performance on June 3, a day when the Mets fell 11 games below .500 on the same night the Yankees went to 23 games above .500. That now feels like less of an argument.

But there’s also this: When the Yankees and the Mets cross swords in any way, it’s almost always the Yankees who come out ahead. In 1976, at the dawn of free agency, George Steinbrenner jumped in with both feet, while the Mets — still owned by the Whitneys, one of the wealthiest families to ever live in New York — were crying poverty. That meant that the same year the Yankees returned to preeminence, the Mets lost Tom Seaver – who ultimately ended up in the Yankees’ TV booth.

The Yankees made a habit of saving or reviving a string of Mets stars: David Cone, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden. When Alex Rodriguez became a free agent in 2000, he forgot what became of him and almost sent roses to his boyhood team, the Mets, who never even made him an offer. Four years later, he was a Yankee, hitting the last 351 of his 696 home runs – a whopping 99 more than the 252 of Strawberry, the Mets’ all-time leader.

Oh? And when the Mets signed the man who is arguably the best everyday player in their history right now (Carlos Beltran), Boras soured the joy by revealing that he tried to back out at the last minute and leave the Yankees interested. That was a particularly painful moment for the Mets.

In fact, you could say the first time the Mets got the upper hand over the Yankees was when they hired Carlos Mendoza from Aaron Boone’s staff around this time last year. That was one thing. This would be something different. Tradition, history and a purpose-built playing field indicate that the Yankees should still be the frontrunner for Soto here. They should be the favorites to win Sotovemeber.

Still, eff-your money is eff-your money.