Surprise Dodgers Star is Third-Highest Paid Player in MLB After Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto

Sam Garcia | Mar 22, 2025

Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Dodgers are no strangers to paying big bucks for top talent.

In the last two offseasons, the Dodgers have agreed to deals that place two of MLB’s highest-paid players in 2025 on Los Angeles’ roster.

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The Dodgers shocked the baseball world when they signed two-way player Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract. It was the most lucrative contract in MLB history until Juan Soto’s recent deal with the New York Mets.

Soto, who has played on four different teams in the last four seasons, landed a long-term contract that makes him the highest-paid MLB player. The four-time All-Star outfielder signed a 15-year, $765 million contract that included an MLB-record $75 million signing bonus.

Although the deferred money in Ohtani’s contract means Soto makes significantly more money from baseball, the unanimous 2024 National League Most Valuable Player makes more money from endorsements than Soto.

Soto has a $121.9 million salary with $7 million in endorsements, while Ohtani has a $2 million salary and $100 million in endorsements, per Sportico.

Ohtani’s endorsement earnings only increased after winning his first World Series title with the Dodgers in 2024. The four-time All-Star's nine million Instagram followers also makes him a strong candidate for endorsements, as Ohtani has more than four times the number of followers as the second most-followed MLB player, Mike Trout.

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This offseason, the Dodgers pulled off another blockbuster move to reinforce their starting rotation. Two-time Cy Young right-hander Blake Snell signed a five-year, $182 million deal including a $52 million signing bonus with Los Angeles in November.

With a $64.8 million salary and $750,000 in endorsements, Snell is the third-highest paid MLB player this year.

Snell had better luck finding a long-term deal this offseason than he did after the 2023 season. The 2023 All-MLB First-Team selection had a qualifying offer that required his new team to forfeit a top draft pick.

The San Francisco Giants chose to sign Snell, despite the qualifying offer, to a two-year, $62 million contract last offseason. Snell only stayed with the franchise for one season before re-electing free agency.

This will be Snell's first season with the Dodgers as Los Angeles battles for back-to-back World Series titles. He will join Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and eventually Shohei Ohtani in the Dodgers' 2025 rotation.

For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.