All eyes are on Juan Soto this MLB offseason, and the free agent slugger could pick a team in as little as a few days.
Mega-agent Scott Boras signaled his client’s free agency was entering its final stages while speaking with reporters Tuesday, saying Soto had begun eliminating teams from the process. From ESPN:
“When you go through these things, you just have a lot of information to meld through,” Boras said during Blake Snell’s introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium. “We’ve had meetings with a number of franchises. He’s begun the process of eliminating teams and doing things. Juan is a very methodical thinker, so we’ll see. I don’t think anything is imminent in the near future.”
While Boras couched his update by claiming he didn’t expect anything in the near future, ESPN reports a decision could come by the end of the week. That would be right before the start of the MLB winter meetings.
As for what kind of money Soto could bring in, The Athletic reports he has offers of at least $600 million from all of his remaining contenders. The teams currently known to be in on him are still the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. The Athletic also reports there expectations Soto will make his decision by the end of the winter meetings.
So $600 million is the floor for Soto. The bigger question mark, of course, is the ceiling.
Will Juan Soto top Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million?
Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract remains the largest known contract in sports history.
Soto is not expected to come close to Ohtani’s $70 million average annual value, but as for total money, it seems quite possible. His deal will almost certainly be more valuable than Ohtani’s when adjusted for inflation; MLB calculates Ohtani’s deal to be worth approximately $460 million for luxury tax purposes.
But people mostly care about the big number. Soto already having multiple $600 million-offers is a good sign a $700 million will come in — or has already come in — but a difference of $100 million is still a long distance to travel.
There are numerous moving parts that will decide where Soto lands with Ohtani. He has the benefit of hitting free agency more than three years younger than Ohtani, but there have been no indications he’s willing to juice the number by taking deferrals. There’s also the possibility of opt-outs, which would make teams more hesitant to open the checkbook if they might only get three or four years of him.
Most of all, though, Soto doesn’t have the built-in economic advantages of Ohtani, who draws millions in Japanese advertising money just by walking on the field in a Dodger uniform. Soto is a great player, but Soto is the national hero of the country with the world’s third-largest economy.
We still don’t know if Soto will break $700 million, but at the very least, being the subject of a bidding war between all of MLB’s heaviest financial hitters is a very good place to be.