Hot Stove Takes: Juan Soto’s Record-Breaking Deal Isn’t Just About the Money

The Mets signed the four-time All-Star to a historic agreement that contains several interesting details—and serves notice that they’re no longer the Yankees’ harmless little brothers.

Soto’s signing marks a major win for the Mets and a devastating loss for the Yankees. / Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

This piece is part of our Hot Stove Takes series, where staff members give quick reactions to the latest notable MLB transactions. Below are our thoughts on Juan Soto’s record $15-year, $765 million contract.

Emma Baccellieri: Juan Soto is a hitter unlike anyone else of his generation. He is a 26-year-old, modern-day Ted Williams. The last few months have been full of debate about just how difficult it might be to accurately value that skill set. Yet even after so much debate, so much analysis, it still felt completely stunning to see the final number here. A $765 million contract would have been one thing. (One extremely large thing.) But a $765 million contract with no deferred money, a signing bonus, several performance escalators, a player opt-out and a 15-year term?

It's not just the largest contract in sports history but the most audacious.

That serves to underscore a few points that we already knew. Mets kingpin Steve Cohen is the wealthiest team owner in MLB, and he's very motivated to win. Adding a hitter like Soto to a roster that just came within two wins of a trip to the World Series puts the Mets in fine position. Finishing the next few years with anything less than a title will be seen as a failure. Oh, and one more thing: It could be a very long winter for the Yankees, who lost out here despite bidding a reported $760 million. 

APSTEIN: Juan Soto’s Self-Confidence Pays Off With Record MLB Contract

Nick Selbe: Steve Cohen has chased big fish ever since he took over the Mets in 2020, and on Sunday night, he finally reeled in the big one. In luring Soto from the rival Yankees, the Mets have taken a page out of the Book of Steinbrenner and simply thrown more money at their problems. This time, it might actually be the difference in ending the franchise's World Series drought that's closing in on four decades.

As was the case with Shohei Ohtani last winter, there has never been a free agent quite like Soto. Players don't often reach the open market at age 26, and you can count the number of hitters who have amassed Soto's réesumé by that age on one hand, maybe two. In seven seasons, Soto has reached base at a .421 clip, slugged 201 homers, made four All-Star teams, won a batting title, finished in the top 10 in MVP voting five times and won a World Series. He's led the league in walks three times and played in at least 150 games in every non-shortened season since his rookie year.

The Yankees will need to pivot and stock their lineup that now has a massive hole to fill. And the Mets aren't automatically the favorites in the National League, either. But the impact of this deal will extend for quite some time—as too will, I'm sure, the satisfaction of Mets fans for having outbid the Yankees for a generational superstar in his prime.

And just like that, there's a new king of Queens.

Will Laws: Records are made to be broken, but the one Juan Soto just set should stand for a long time.

The circumstances surrounding Soto’s free agency—his immense talent and young age, New York’s two teams being incentivized to engage in a bidding war, Shohei Ohtani setting the bar high last offseason—will be tough to recreate. And there aren’t any players with Soto’s credentials set to reach free agency anytime soon (though that could be said for just about any period in MLB history).

Is this an overpay? Probably. It feels a little odd for Soto to top Ohtani considering the latter’s two-way prowess. And Ohtani just outperformed Soto in terms of WAR in a season when he was limited to hitting.

But that shouldn’t matter to MLB’s richest owner, and it certainly shouldn’t bother Mets fans. Plus, with the Yankees reportedly offering Soto $760 million over 16 years, it was going to take something like this to lure him across town. Now that they have, the Mets can no longer be considered the Yankees’ harmless little brothers.