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 choosing his next team, but the bidding war surrounding the free-agent slugger shows no signs of slowing ahead of this week’s MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas.

As reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post, both the New York Yankees and Mets have made record-breaking offers to Soto in the range of $710 million to $730 million. Currently, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers has the richest contract in baseball history with his largely deferred $700 million deal.

After years of being spent by the Yankees, the Mets now have the fortune of billionaire owner Steve Cohen. However, the Mets also have to consider their own free agent, Pete Alonso, who remains on the market after a 34-home run season in Queens.

Of course, the 26-year-old Soto had 41 home runs to go with an impressive .418 on-base percentage and a league-best 128 runs scored last year, all of which makes him one of the most coveted free agents in baseball history . .

Soto now appears on a schedule to decide where to sign, before or during baseball’s winter meetings in Dallas, which start Sunday and last until Dec. 12.

Soto has met with the Yankees, Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, a person familiar with the negotiations said, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details were not disclosed.

Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, asked teams to submit initial offers before Thanksgiving and says Soto has started leaving clubs out of consideration.

“He just has a lot of information to process,” Boras said Tuesday after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ press conference to introduce Blake Snell, another of his clients. ‘Juan is a very methodical thinker.’

Soto is the best available player among this year’s free agents. Soto, a four-time All-Star, finished third in the AL MVP voting after hitting .288 with 41 home runs, 109 RBIs and 129 walks. He has a career average of .285 with 201 home runs, 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 while with Washington, and at age 20 became the youngest player with five postseason home runs. Soto’s .906 postseason OPS through age 25 topped Mantle (.900) and Derek Jeter (.852).

Soto will likely look for a recording contract to add to Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December. That might not mean Soto gets more than $700 million. Because Ohtani’s deal included $680 million in deferred money payable through 2043, it can be valued in several ways.

For example, Ohtani’s contract is valued at $46.1 million per season ($461 million total) under MLB’s luxury tax system, which had a 4.43 percent discount rate. The players’ association applies a rate of 5 percent, bringing Ohtani’s contract to $43.8 million per year. For MLB’s regular payroll calculations, Ohtani’s deal is valued at just $28.2 million with a 10 percent discount.

Agent Scott Boras (left) talks with his client, Juan Soto, during the 2024 World Series

That means if Soto gets even $462 million without deferred payments, there’s an argument that his deal is the most valuable in MLB history.

On an annual average, pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are tied for second in baseball history with $43.33 million as part of contracts they signed with the New York Mets, deals that expire 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.

The longest contract in the MLB is outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr.’s 14-year contract. with the San Diego Padres through 2034.

Soto will likely seek a recording contract, on top of Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million deal

The Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies will all likely enter 2025 having paid luxury taxes for three years in a row, which puts them at the highest rate: a 50 percent surcharge on payroll between $241 million and $261 million, 62 percent of $261 million to $281 million, 95 percent from $281 million to $301 million and 110 percent for every dollar above $301 million.

Toronto may have fallen below the initial tax threshold this year, pending final figures next month. If the Blue Jays were to fall under it, their rates would reset to 20 percent, 32 percent, 62.5 percent and 80 percent for the four thresholds next year.

If Soto reaches or announces an agreement during the winter meetings at Hilton Anatole in Dallas, this would be a prime location for a major Boras deal.

Alex Rodriguez’s record $252 million, 10-year contract with the Texas Rangers was announced in December 2000 at what was then called the Wyndham Anatole Hotel. A-Rod’s deal more than doubled MLB’s previous record, an eight-year, $121 million contract between pitcher Mike Hampton and Colorado that was announced just two days earlier.

“Within two days, we 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 when the deal with Texas was made, a free agent before he, like Soto, reached his likely prime.

Third baseman Alex Bregman, first basemen Pete Alonso and Christian Walker, and outfielders Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernández are among the key bats available to pursue and would likely interest a number of teams that fail to sign Soto.

Bregman and Alonso, like Soto, are represented by Boras.