New York Yankees and Mets ‘make MLB record offers to Juan Soto as $730m free-agency saga enters ‘final days’
Juan Soto may be on the verge of picking his next team, but the bidding war surrounding the free-agent slugger is showing no signs of slowing down ahead of this week’s MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas.
As reported by the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, both the New York Yankees and Mets have made record-breaking offers to Soto in the range of $710million to $730 million. Currently the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani has the richest contract in baseball history with his largely deferred $700 million deal.
After years of being outspent by the Yankees, the Mets have now have billionaire owner Steve Cohen’s fortune at their disposal. However, the Mets also have to consider their own free agent, Pete Alonso, who remains on the market after a 34-homer season in Queens.
Of course, the 26-year-old Soto had 41 home runs last year to go with an impressive .418 on-base percentage and league-best 128 runs scored, all of which makes him one of the most coveted free agents in baseball history.
Soto now appears on a timetable to decide on where to sign either before or during baseball’s winter meetings in Dallas, which start Sunday and run until December 12.
Juan Soto had 41 home runs last year to go with an impressive .418 on-base percentage
Soto has met with the Yankees, Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, a person familiar with the negotiations has said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details were not announced.
Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, asked teams to submit initial offers by Thanksgiving and says Soto has started to eliminate clubs from consideration.
‘He’s just got a lot of information to meld through,’ Boras said Tuesday after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ news conference to introduce Blake Snell, another of his clients. ‘Juan is a very methodical thinker.’
Soto is the top player available among this year’s free agents. A four-time All-Star, Soto finished third in AL MVP voting after hitting .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks. He has a .285 career average with 201 homers, 592 RBIs and 769 walks over seven major league seasons.
Soto turned down a $440 million, 15-year offer from Washington in 2022, prompting the Nationals to trade him to San Diego, which then dealt him to the Yankees last December. Soto then combined with Aaron Judge to lead New York to the World Series, where the Yankees lost to the Dodgers.
In his pitch to teams, Boras highlighted that Soto joined Mickey Mantle as the only players with seven RBIs in a World Series at age 21 or younger when he was with Washington, and at 20 became the youngest player with five postseason homers. Soto’s .906 postseason OPS through age 25 topped Mantle (.900) and Derek Jeter (.852).
Soto is likely to seek a record contract, topping Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million, 10-year agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December. That might not mean Soto gets more than $700 million, though. Because Ohtani’s deal included $680 million in deferred money payable through 2043, it can be valued by different methods.
For instance, Ohtani’s contract is valued at $46.1 million per season ($461 million total) under MLB’s luxury tax system, which used a 4.43 percent discount rate. The players’ association uses a 5-percent rate, which puts Ohtani’s contract at $43.8 million per year. For MLB’s regular payroll calculations, a 10-percent discount rates values Ohtani’s deal at just $28.2 million.
Agent Scott Boras (left) talks to his client, Juan Soto, during the 2024 World Series
Which means if Soto gets even $462 million without deferred payments, there’s an argument that his deal is the most valuable in MLB history.
By average annual value, pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are tied for second in baseball history at $43.33 million as part of contracts they signed with the New York Mets, deals that expired at the end of the 2024 season.
In terms of total value, Ohtani surpassed outfielder Mike Trout’s $426.5 million, 12-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels through 2030.
MLB’s longest contract is outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr.’s 14-year deal with the San Diego Padres through 2034.
Soto is likely to seek a record deal, topping Ohtani’s $700 million, 10-year agreement
The Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies all are likely to enter 2025 having paid luxury tax for three straight years, putting them at the highest rate: a 50-percent surcharge on payroll between $241 million and $261 million, 62 percent from $261 million to $281 million, 95 percent from $281 million to $301 million and 110 percent for each dollar above $301 million.
Toronto may have dropped below the initial tax threshold this year, pending final figures next month. If the Blue Jays did fall under, their rates next year would reset to 20 percent, 32 percent, 62.5 percent and 80 percent for the four thresholds.
If Soto reaches or announces an agreement at the winter meetings in Dallas’ Hilton Anatole, it would be a familiar location for a big Boras deal.
Alex Rodriguez’s record $252 million, 10-year contract with the Texas Rangers was announced in December 2000 at what then was called the Wyndham Anatole Hotel. A-Rod’s deal more than doubled MLB’s previous high, a $121 million, eight-year contract between pitcher Mike Hampton and Colorado that was announced just two days earlier.
‘In two days, we’ve doubled a new highest salary,’ said Sandy Alderson, then an executive vice president in the commissioner’s office. ‘I don’t like the exponentiality of that.’
Rodriguez was 25 at the time of the agreement with Texas, a free agent before entering his likely prime, like Soto.
Third baseman Alex Bregman, first basemen Pete Alonso and Christian Walker, and outfielders Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernández are among the significant bats available to pursue and likely would interest some of the teams who fail to sign Soto.
Bregman and Alonso, like Soto, are represented by Boras.
