Juan Soto's Historic Contract Has Clause to Push Above $800 Million

Soto's contract is already the largest in professional sports history.

Josh Wilson | Dec 9, 2024

Soto bats at Citi Field against the Mets during the 2024 season / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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On Sunday night, outfielder Juan Soto agreed to join the New York Mets on a historic contract. It's worth $765 million over 15 years, making him the highest-paid MLB player in history.

Per reports, though, there's a world in which the contract could go beyond the $800-million mark. According to Jorge Castillo, and confirmed by several other MLB reporters, if the Mets want to void Soto's ability to opt out of the contract after 2029, they must increase his salary from $51 to $55 million every year after 2029.

That would bring the total contract value to $805 million — an astonishingly high number.

It's no wonder Soto and his family were celebrating big-time after the contract was agreed upon.

Soto's contract already beat Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million deal signed last offseason. Ohtani's contract is also heavily deferred well beyond the life of the playing part of the contract, Soto's is not. He'll get paid more, and get it sooner.

The star outfielder received other competitive offers, including a reported $760 million over 16 years from the New York Yankees, his incumbent team.

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Published Dec 9, 2024|Modified Dec 9, 2024

JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.