Juan Soto just signed a $765 million contract with the Mets that could be worth up to $800 million, the largest contract in the history of professional sports. At 26 years old, this contract will take Soto through his age-40 season.
Here’s how his mega-deal stacks up in Major League Baseball history.
Biggest Contract in MLB History
Up until now, Shohei Ohtani signed the largest deal in MLB history at 10 years for $700 million last winter.
However, that contract was filled mostly with deferred money, as Ohtani is only earning $2 million per year and taking a whopping $68 million in deferrals each of the first 10 years after the contract expires.
In actuality, Ohtani’s deal had a present day value of 10 years and $460 million. That $46 million annually is also the Competitive Balance Tax figure that shows up against the Dodgers tax payroll.
Soto’s contract has no deferrals. The Mets will pay him $75 million as a signing bonus and $51 million each year for the next 15 years, unless he exercises his opt out in five years.
In that case, the contract will escalate to a $55 million per year average annual value.
That is the largest contract in sports’ history by leaps and bounds. It’s more than Lebron James and Tom Brady have made combined in their careers’. It’s more than global superstars Christiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi have ever signed for. It’s more than six MLB owners’ net worth. It’s truly an incomprehensible amount of money.
Highest Paid Players in MLB History
Soto will be the highest paid athlete ever once this contract is fully paid out, both in terms of a total deal and per year.
Besides him, Justin Verlander has earned the most money for any player in history at $404.2 million over the course of his career. There’s a solid chance he signs on for one more year, too, increasing those lofty career earnings. And that’s still barely half of what Soto is due from the Mets.
After Verlander, Miguel Cabrera is the only other player to earn more than $400 million in their career. Alex Rodriguez falls just below that mark at $399.3 million, then Max Scherzer at $351.1 million and Albert Pujols rounds out the top-five at $346.5 million.
Soto’s contract could be worth nearly as much as Verlander and Pujols’ combined career earnings.
As far as single year earnings go, Soto’s $51M tops the previous record of $43.3 million shared by Scherzer and Verlander. Aaron Judge had the highest AAV for a position player at $40 million. All deferrals aside, Ohtani’s contract has an annual $46 million value against the Dodgers’ competitive balance tax threshold.
Single-Season MLB Contract Milestones
Soto will be the first player in MLB history to earn more than $50 million in a single season, establishing a new all-time MLB contract milestone.
As far as historical milestones go, Ty Cobb was the first player to ever break the $10,000 milestone in 1913 after winning six straight batting titles.
Babe Ruth was the first player to earn $50,000 in a single season after hitting 113 home runs with 303 RBI and a .377 batting average in the two years that preceded his record-breaking deal signed in 1922.
It took until 1949 for Joe DiMaggio to become baseball’s first $100,000 man. That would be the shortest season of his career, though, and he’d retire just three short years later.
Rising contracts stalled after that. It took all the way until 1974 for Dick Allen to receive the first $250,000 contract. That year would also be the last time he ever hit 30 home runs or had an average over .300.
Mike Schmidt signed the first $500,000 contract just three years later. He broke the age-old trend of players having their massive paydays towards the tail end of his career, signing his six-year deal at 27-years-old and going on to win two MVPs and a World Series while on that contract.
Then, MLB’s reserve clause fell and free agency sent contracts soaring. Nolan Ryan signed the first ever million dollar contract in 1980 – tripling his previous season’s salary while with the Angels – just five years after Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter was the league’s first ever free agent. Ryan led the league in walks six of the eight seasons before signing his mega-deal with Houston.
Bobby Bonilla signed the first $5 million deal in 1992 and the Mets are still paying it off. Five years later, Albert Belle inked the first $10 million deal.
Then, Alex Rodriguez became both the first $20 million and $30 million player. Scott Boras signed both of those deals, first with the Rangers in 2001 and then with the Yankees in 2009.
Scherzer was the first player to sign a $40 million deal – with Steve Cohen and the Mets – ahead of the 2022 season. He was joined by Judge and Verlander the next offseason as $40 million men.
Largest Contracts in Mets’ History
Obviously, Soto instantly becomes the highest paid player in Mets’ history. He will earn more annually than Scherzer or Verlander did and blows Francisco Lindor’s 10 year, $341 million deal out of the water.
Before this era of rampant Mets’ spending under Cohen, the Wilpon’s were reluctant to hand out mega-contracts. They signed Yoenis Cespedes to a four year, $110 million deal in 2016 after back-to-back playoff berths.
The previous owners said that contract was too rich for them to be involved with the bidding for Manny Machado or Bryce Harper in 2019 because few teams had multiple $100 million players.
David Wright signed an eight year, $138 million dollar deal in 2012 that hamstrung the organization financially. It came on the heels of Jason Bay’s four year, $66 million deal that looks like chump change today. Also, Johan Santana pitched just one complete season after signing a six year, $137.5 million deal in 2008.
Soto’s contract has ushered in a new day for the Mets and baseball contracts in general.
