The Dominican Juan Soto has signed the largest contract in absolute terms in the history of sports. The New York Yankees star has signed a 15-year contract with the rivals from the same city, the New York Mets, for a total of 765 million dollars (about 725 million euros), in an agreement that includes clauses that can raise the total to 805 million dollars, as announced this Sunday by the New York Post and later confirmed by various American media. Soto moves from the Bronx to Queens, causing an earthquake in New York baseball.
The contract signed by the player born in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) exceeds in absolute figures that of the Japanese Shohei Ohtani, 30, who signed last year for 10 years for the Los Angeles Dodgers for a total of 700 million dollars.
Ohtani’s contract included a financial engineering design with deferred payments that allowed it to be computed as 46 million dollars per season (although the real figure was 70). Soto’s does not include these deferrals and will count for $51 million annually for the purposes of salary limits and other MLB regulations.
Soto is 26 years old, meaning he is tied to the Mets until he is 41, although the contract also includes provisions for possible early expiration. In baseball, players can perform at a high level until older ages than in other sports, making long-term agreements easier, although this is the broadest. Its duration exceeds that of 340 million dollars for 14 years that Fernando Tatis Jr. has with San Diego until 2034.
Juan Soto had ended his contract with the Yankees and was the great free star of the MLB, the Major League Baseball. Several teams were interested in signing him, including the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees tried to retain him without success. According to sources cited by the AP, its final offer was $760 million for 16 years, with a design that gave it an average annual value of $47.5 million.
The Dominican, four-time All Star, thus reaches his fourth MLB team. He debuted in the competition on May 20, 2018 with the Washington Nationals, becoming the youngest player in the Major Leagues at 19 years and 207 days, and the first player born in 1998 to appear in a game. With his characteristic hitting style, with a swinging ritual that mixes ritual and superstition with the attempt to distract rival pitchers, he soon showed signs of his quality and helped the Nationals win the World Series the following year.
In 2022 he rejected Washington’s offer of a 15-year, $440 million contract and was traded that August to San Diego in an operation with several players involved. After the death of Padres owner Peter Seidler, he was traded to the Yankees in December 2023 to fulfill the final year of his contract for $31 million. In the new agreement he will receive a signing bonus of $75 million, payable when the competition commissioner’s office approves the signing.
Soto was key for the Yankees to reach the final of the competition, the World Series, this season. He connected the home run decisive for the Yankees, the most successful team in the Major Leagues, to reach their first final since 2009. However, they were defeated precisely by Ohtani’s Dodgers. The Japanese closed a historic season of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases, although he was eclipsed in the finals by Freddie Freeman, unanimously chosen best player after hitting four home runs in consecutive games.
Soto has a batting average of 0.285, with 201 home runs and 592 RBIs in seven seasons in the Major Leagues. He comes to the Mets, who lost in the National League final against the Dodgers.
The signing of the Dominican has not yet been made public because its formalization is pending a medical examination.
