SI

Mystery Team Rumored to Have Outdone Mets' First Two Bids for Juan Soto

Ryan Phillips

Soto agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets.
Soto agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images
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The New York Mets had to come from behind to land Juan Soto in free agency.

A report from the New York Post's Jon Heyman on Thursday shed some light on the chase for Soto. In it, Heyman claims the Mets' first two contract offers trailed the initial offer from a mystery team. He never revealed who that mystery team was.

From the article:

The five-team bidding on Soto started between the $440M he declined from Nats in 2022 and $500M.

The Mets trailed one team’s first bid even with their initial second bid.

So, it was quite a comeback to get that done!

The five teams generally accepted to have been the frontrunners in the chase for Soto were the Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Blue Jays were widely expected to be among the top bidders for Soto, so they are a candidate, while the Yankees reportedly made a $760 million offer to Soto before he signed with the Mets. Either team is a possibility.

In the end, the Mets won out, landing the 26-year-old superstar with a 15-year, $765 million megadeal. It wasn't easy, though, and apparently, they needed to make a comeback to land him.

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Ryan Phillips
RYAN PHILLIPS

Ryan Phillips is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in digital media since 2009, spending eight years at The Big Lead before joining SI in 2024. Phillips also co-hosts The Assembly Call Podcast about Indiana Hoosiers basketball and previously worked at Bleacher Report. He is a proud San Diego native and a graduate of Indiana University’s journalism program.

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