Juan Soto is crossing town.
The superstar outfielder agreed to a 15-year, $765-million contract with the New York Mets, sources told Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
Soto’s contract is the largest in professional sports history, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
The contract contains no deferred money, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports. Soto also gets an opt-out after the 2029 season, per the Post’s Joel Sherman. However, the Mets can void that opt-out by raising Soto’s annual salary over the final 10 seasons from $51 million to $55 million, a source told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
It also comes with a $75-million signing bonus, Rosenthal reports.
The 26-year-old is coming off another All-Star campaign, winning a Silver Slugger with the New York Yankees. In his only season with the Yanks, he hit .288/.419/.569 with a career-high 41 home runs to go with 31 doubles and 109 RBIs across 157 games.
Soto, acquired from the San Diego Padres last offseason, appeared to begin crafting his Yankees legacy with a postseason run to remember. He hit .327/.469/.633 in 14 games and crushed the ALCS-winning homer in Game 5 against the Cleveland Guardians.
Steve Cohen, the richest individual owner in baseball, outbid his crosstown counterpart, Hal Steinbrenner, to lure Soto to Queens. The Yankees’ final offer to the four-time All-Star came in at $760 million over 16 years, according to Heyman, for an average annual value of $47.5 million compared to the $51 million he’ll get from the Mets.
The Boston Red Sox, one of the other finalists for Soto’s services, tapped out after a final offer of around $700 million over 15 years, a source told MassLive’s Sean McAdam. The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers were also finalists.
Soto joins a Mets team looking to build on last year’s surprising run to the NLCS. He’ll likely bat behind leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor to create one of the best one-two punches in baseball. He also gets to call one of his favorite ballparks home, as he’s hit .333/.466/.709 with 12 homers in 35 games at Citi Field.
The Mets have made the playoffs twice in the past three seasons but haven’t won a pennant since 2015 and the World Series since 1986.
Soto was signed by the Washington Nationals out of the Dominican Republic in 2015 and reached the majors three years later. He immediately established himself as one of baseball’s best hitters and led the Nats to a World Series title as a 20-year-old in 2019.
Soto turned down a 15-year, $440-million extension offer from the Nationals in July 2022, a decision that now looks quite prescient. Shortly after declining, Washington traded him to the Padres where he spent a year-and-a-half.
Over his seven-year career, Soto is a .285/.421/.532 hitter with 201 home runs and 592 RBIs. The four-time All-Star has won five Silver Sluggers, a batting title, and two on-base percentage titles while never posting an OBP below .400.
The Yankees, meanwhile, will receive an additional draft pick as compensation after the fourth round in July’s draft, according to Thomas Harrigan of MLB.com, as Soto declined their qualifying offer in November.
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