
We all want to be successful baseball players.
On December 11th, 26-year-old superstar outfielder Juan Soto inked a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets. The Mets seemed to be one of the only teams with a realistic chance of signing Soto, along with the Yankees. Toronto and Boston seemed to be in the running too, but when it came down to the highest bidder, it was clear it would be a team from New York. (For those wondering why the Dodgers weren’t in on him, they are already spending an absurd amount of money on their roster. They had absolutely no chance of having enough money.)
Soto hit the MLB scene in 2018 as a 19-year-old phenom, immediately raking with the Washington Nationals en route to finishing runner-up in Rookie of the Year voting. He connected on 22 homers, starting the season two months late. The following year, Soto continued his strong start in the bigs, hitting 34 homers and finishing 9th in MVP voting. Soto mashed again in 2020 and was traded to San Diego in the summer of ’21 following one of the most dramatic trade deadlines in recent memory. After a year and a half as a Padre, Soto was traded again in the winter of ’23 to the Yankees. After a very successful year in the Bronx, Soto signed to go play in Queens. Soto is the first player to make 3 All-Star appearances with 3 different teams in the span of 3 years.
This contract is ridiculous.
In comparison to Ohtani’s deal, the simple thing that stands out is the deferred money. Ohtani makes $2 million every year until 2034, then makes $68 million annually for the next 10 years. There’s no deferred money in Soto’s contract. Although he has an opt-out, the Mets can easily void it by giving him a $4 million raise, changing his annual salary from $51 million to 55.
We won’t see anything close to this contract for a while. For one, because there aren’t a lot of players like Soto out there. He’s been in the MLB since he was a 19-year-old in 2018 and has shown elite plate discipline and power since entering the league. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone worthy of being paid that much money (who hasn’t already been paid their money). Obviously, predicting who turns out to be an elite player in the future is near impossible, especially to play on Soto’s level, It’s also hard to find someone with that much money to throw around. Mets owner Steve Cohen has the highest net worth out of any owner in the MLB at $16 billion. Some MLB teams simply couldn’t compete in the bidding war for Soto’s services.
At the end of the day, Juan Soto is en route to a very successful 15-year tenure in Queens. Maybe a title is on their horizon.