DALLAS – The Yankees went all-in for Juan Soto.

They were willing to pay a record-breaking sum to keep the superstar outfielder in the pinstripes, offering a reported $760 million over 16 years.

That works out to $47.5 million per year, including the chance to continue hitting in front of Aaron Judge and return to a team that made it to the World Series last season.

With that in mind, you have to give Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner some credit. Yes, they didn’t keep Soto and came up short, but their offer exceeded expectations. That’s more than double the contract they gave Judge two winters ago ($360 million over nine years). They chose to do so and offered a deal that would have taken away their financial flexibility as there were other holes scattered throughout their roster.

And yet in a competition where money was on the line, it wasn’t good enough.

Soto signed with the Mets on Sunday night, agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million deal to bring his talents to Queens. As SNY’s Andy Martino described it, the Yankees “were in the lead throughout the entire process for Soto,” but Mets owner Steve Cohen “came off the top rope very late and made it.” He wasn’t turned away. At least not in dollars.

It is the largest contract in professional sports history for Soto, breaking Shohei Ohtani’s record in both total value and current average annual value. Unlike Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Dodgers, there are no deferrals in Soto’s contract. The 26-year-old outfielder received a $75 million signing bonus and an opt-out after five years.

The industry consensus was that Cohen would blow away any other big-spending contender in the Soto sweepstakes, but the Yankees were spot on. One wonders how much he actually wanted to stay in the Bronx if these final offers were so close. It’s only a difference of $3.5 million per year.

Either way, Soto accepted the bigger and better offer.

This could have been his plan all along.

Now the focus turns back to Steinbrenner.

How much of that contract will he be willing to spend and split it between a handful of impact players? The Yankees know they still have a lot of work to do and must act quickly by moving into the open market to address multiple positions before the next best options also disappear from the field.