DALLAS — The Phillies had to deal with the Mets ending their season two months ago. Now they have to deal with Juan Soto for the next 15 years.
Soto, agent Scott Boras and the Mets kicked off MLB's Winter Meetings by agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million contract that makes Soto by far the highest-paid player in pro sports history, with or without deferrals.
Mets owner Steve Cohen is worth more than $20 billion and has spent freely since purchasing the team in 2020. All along, the expectation was the Mets would not be outbid for Soto, a transcendent 26-year-old superstar and future Hall of Famer. The Yankees were desperate to keep him, the Red Sox and Blue Jays were desperate to add him, but was anyone seriously going to trump Cohen's top offer?
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According to various reports by ESPN, The Athletic and the New York Post, Soto's contract does not include deferrals, can rise as high as $800 million with incentives and includes an opt-out after the 2029 season that can be voided if the Mets add an extra $40 million total to the final 10 years of his deal. If they do, it would become a 15-year, $805 million contract.
Just absolutely silly money. Baseball skipped over the $500 and $600 million range the last two offseasons as Shohei Ohtani signed for $700 million over 10 years with heavy deferrals and now Soto for $765M. Prior to those two, the largest contract ever belonged to Mike Trout at 12 years, $426.5M.
Soto's annual salary is $51 million — more than twice as much as Bryce Harper's $25.38 million. Harper's contract (13 years, $330 million) was the richest ever when he signed it in February 2019, but even then his priorities were different. If Harper wanted to squeeze out every last dollar, he wouldn't have chosen to have no opt-outs. Think about what Harper would have commanded on the open market the last few offseasons.
That takes nothing away from Soto's decision. He earned the right to choose from a handful of insane offers. And his fellow players are probably grateful to see him move the needle contractually, even if deals like this will ever apply to the top 0.001% of players.
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The Phillies intended to meet with Soto but never did, probably because they quickly saw how out of control the bidding would become. A team offering even $500 million would have been wasting its time.
The Mets will be formidable with Soto, though it's not an unbeatable lineup. As of now, it would include Francisco Lindor, Soto, Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil, Tyrone Taylor, Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty. It would look a lot deeper if they also re-sign Pete Alonso and keep Vientos at third base.
Their rotation currently consists of Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas, David Peterson, Clay Holmes and Paul Blackburn. Additions will be made, but it's not as if this becomes a surefire 100-win team just because of Soto.
Still, it's a massive move, one that further intensifies a three-team NL East race and helps strip away so many years of the Mets playing second fiddle to the Yankees.
The free-agent market should begin to move faster now. Soto was in a class of his own but the teams that missed out on him will pivot to other opportunities and expenditures. Alex Bregman is now the top available position player, along with Alonso and outfielders Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Santander. Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Sean Manaea are the top free-agent pitchers.
The Phillies' top priority is offensive improvement. The most obvious spot to upgrade is center field, but they also need a platoon partner for Brandon Marsh, at least one late-inning reliever and starting pitching depth. They won't be making a Mets-like splash, but much can be accomplished this week at the Hilton Anatole, where decision-makers from all 30 teams are on hand to discuss deals.