Are Blue Jays about to get sucked in again with their pursuit of free agent superstar Juan Soto?

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Here we go again, Blue Jays fans.

Facing yet another critical off-season to get the team pointed in the right competitive direction, the Toronto front office is once again being linked with the biggest name in Major League Baseball free agency and thus once again setting the stage for a wild rumour-driven winter.

And the Jays aren’t wasting any time in their purported pursuit of Juan Soto, either.

A report by ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Tuesday said the Jays will be one of the first teams to visit the slugger, most recently of the New York Yankees, in Southern California.

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That meeting, which is scheduled to take place this week, will crank up the hype machine to rival that surrounding the team’s failed chase of Shohei Ohtani.

It’s an all-too-familiar script for the Jays, who have been among the league leaders in high-end shopping as they try to build around their own homegrown star, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The fallout from missing out on Ohtani was even worse when the Jays seemingly were void of a viable backup plan, leaving the team weakened from the start of the miserable 2024 campaign.

Just how realistic the Jays’ chances are remains to be seen, but high-end shoppers like the Jays and both the New York Yankees and Mets, who are also at the front of the list, play perfectly into the hands of super agent Scott Boras.

Perennially a top-10 payroll team over the past few seasons, the Jays once again appear to have plenty of Rogers Communications money to spend. But will it be in the $700 million US range that might be needed to land the 26-year-old Soto?

Citing sources, Passan reported that the Jays will lead off the big-money presentations for Soto, followed by their AL East rival Boston Red Sox. Both the Mets and Yankees — seen as the co-frontrunners for Soto’s services — also have scheduled meetings with Soto and the Boras camp, according to Passan.

There’s little doubt the Jays are serious about adding a big name — and especially a big bat — to revive a once-promising outfit that plummeted to the AL East basement last season. With Guerrero and Bo Bichette on expiring contracts, the urgency is further heightened for GM Ross Atkins and team president Mark Shapiro this winter.

The Jays were certainly in the spotlight a year ago when many believed they were so deep in the race for Ohtani that they helped boost the Japanese superstar’s eventual deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers to $700 million US.

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It’s a fascinating trend for a team that is teetering toward crisis. Are high-end free agents serious about the Jays beyond the Rogers largesse? Perhaps.

But those determined to go to a winner — as Soto has said is high on his wish list — have questions. Will the team sign Guerrero long-term? How will it prop up a faltering farm system? Is it committed to winning long term?

At this point, Soto and his camp hold all the lucrative cards, making him one of the most desired free agents in baseball history — and up in the same stratosphere as Ohtani.

rlongley@postmedia.com