The rumor that the Yankees will cap their final Juan Soto offer at $40 million per year because they can’t offend Aaron Judge (who makes $40 million) is a “lie,” according to a person familiar with their thinking. “No one has ever said anything like that before,” the person added. (Moreover, Judge, a team person, wants the team to be great.)

The Yankees will make a big push, and one executive expects the biggest competition to come from the Mets, Giants and Jays.

The Jays are actually expected to play for Soto. Like Judge, Vlad Guerrero Jr. would prefer Soto on his team.

The Giants and Jays both tried to trade for Soto when the Yankees made the Padres deal, which was great for both teams.

Personally, I never discount the Dodgers.

The Yankees’ calls to play conservatively and choose Alex Verdugo over Jasson Dominguez, Jon Berti/Oswaldo Cabrera over Ben Rice and Clarke Schmidt over Luis Gil are paying off so far.

The Padres are a great story. But her call to keep Fox star sideline reporter Ken Rosenthal away after he wrote about Manny Machado’s “Throwgate” was unprofessional.

The MLB ended up not fining Machado, apparently feeling it was much ado about little.