The most expensive free-agent derby in the history of Major League Baseball ended on Sunday evening with Juan Soto, the prodigiously talented and charmingly theatrical slugger, agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, a person briefed on the situation told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The deal, first reported by the New York Post, includes a $75 million signing bonus. The decision ended a two-month parade of visits, counter-offers and ultimately a staredown between the two teams in the Big Apple.
According to The Athletic’s Will Sammon, a league source said that the deal includes no deferred money with an opt-out after the fifth season. The Mets can void that option by increasing Soto’s average salary to $55 million for the next 10 years.
At the dawn of winter, Soto’s agent Scott Boras described his client as “the Mona Lisa of the museum.” Mets owner Steve Cohen, an avid art collector, has now added the outfielder to a team that came within two victories of capturing the National League pennant.
The deal, which was pending a physical and confirmed by people familiar with the situation, set a new paradigm for the sport. Soto, 26, surpassed Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million windfall from last offseason. His $51 million average annual salary set another new record.
Soto entered this offseason as the No. 1 player on The Athletic’s Big Board and was projected to receive a 13-year, $611 million deal. That was before a feverish round of negotiations that also included spirited efforts from the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. In the end, the talks pitted the two New York teams. Soto spurned a 16-year, $760 million offer from the Yankees to take his talents to Queens.
To put Soto’s bonanza in perspective, consider that the Fenway Sports Group purchased the Boston Red Sox for $700 million in 2002. Soto will receive more than twice the payday fetched by former teammate Aaron Judge, who inked a 10-year, $360 million contract after the 2022 season. Soto will earn nearly $4 million more in 2025 than the entire Athletics’ Opening Day payroll in 2022.
After being traded twice already in his career, he can now polish his Hall of Fame résumé over the next decade in Flushing. In his seven seasons in the majors, Soto has drawn comparisons to Ted Williams while accumulating an impressive array of hardware. He is a four-time All-Star and a five-time Silver Slugger. At 20, he helped the Washington Nationals win the World Series. A year later, he won the batting title. In his lone season as a member of the Yankees, Soto hit 41 homers with 109 RBI and a .989 OPS. He swatted the home run that delivered the Yankees to the franchise’s first World Series since 2009.
At the plate, Soto prides himself on patience. Since his debut in 2018, he leads all hitters in on-base percentage (.421). He finished first in walks in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He infuses his plate appearances with drama. Soto does not just take pitches. He sneers at them, sliding through the batter’s box, staring at the pitcher as his face registers disdain or amusement, depending on the quality of the pitch. The gesture has become known as the Soto Shuffle, a bit of exhibitionism that often precedes hard contact.
His patience benefited him as he plotted his free agency. For Soto, the contract represents the culmination of a wager he made – with the guidance of Boras – on himself two years ago. In the summer of 2022, the Nationals offered Soto a 15-year, $440 million extension. The deal would have topped Mike Trout’s 12-year, $426.5 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels in total dollars, but not average annual value. The franchise had run aground after winning a championship in 2019. Soto did not want to commit the rest of his career to a last-place club.
After Soto rejected the deal, the Nationals traded him. He spent the summer of 2022 and all of 2023 as a member of the San Diego Padres. Looking to trim payroll for 2024, the Padres dealt Soto to the Yankees. He proved to be an ideal complement to Judge, who collected his second American League MVP in November; Soto finished third in the voting.
Soto’s decision should cause devastation in the Bronx and elation in Queens. The Yankees are expected to be aggressive in trying to replace him in the aggregate, in the form of upgrades to their corner infield and outfield positions. Yet the sting of Soto’s departure may take a long time to fade.
For the Mets, Soto represents the latest splurge from Cohen, who purchased the franchise from the Wilpon family after the 2020 season. Cohen, a hedge-fund titan, has financed the most expensive roster in the sport in each of the past three seasons. The Mets crashed out early in the 2022 postseason and did not play October baseball in 2023. This past summer, though, a group led by Francisco Lindor caught fire on a joyous run that demonstrated the potential of the team’s core.
That core now includes Juan Soto. And all it took was the biggest contract in baseball history.
(Photo of Soto: Harry How / Getty Images)