DALLAS — Fifteen years, $765 million, no deferred cash. The numbers of Juan Soto‘s contract with the New York Mets, agreed to Sunday evening in a deal that units a brand new customary for the biggest contract in skilled sports activities historical past, inform a narrative. A baseball-loving phenom from the Dominican Republic arrived within the huge leagues at 19 years previous, thrived instantaneously, guess on himself by turning down a $440 million contract supply two years in the past and now emerges with a file variety of {dollars} and years — and reminds the sports activities world of the limitless prospects when excessive expertise meets a free market.
It’s not the one story, although. This is as a lot concerning the Mets as it’s Soto — a few franchise that for its 63-year existence has lived within the shadow of its pedigreed neighbor. Not anymore. Not after the 2 New York groups went head-to-head for a participant who spent 2024 within the Bronx however decamped to Queens for a long-term dedication.
Think about that for a second. A Yankee selected to be a Met. And not simply any Yankee: one which helped lead the storied franchise to the World Series this yr, one whom the group was equally ready to pay $700 million-plus over 15 seasons. The sheer dimension of Soto’s contract — greater than Shohei Ohtani‘s cope with the Los Angeles Dodgers, greater than Lionel Messi’s with Barcelona, greater than Patrick Mahomes’ with the Kansas City Chiefs — boggles the thoughts. Even extra beautiful is the Mets’ glow-up from a group whose foibles have been its defining characteristic to the vacation spot for an archetypal free agent.
And for that, each giddy Mets fan, from Astoria to Jamaica, Whitestone to Far Rockaway, can thank Steve Cohen. When Cohen purchased the group in 2020, hope — one thing beforehand in brief provide to Mets followers — percolated. One of the world’s richest males, value an estimated $20 billion, was shopping for their group. And he was poised to construct a juggernaut.
Failures dotted Cohen’s first 4 years as proprietor, however now not have been they the franchise’s defining characteristic. He struck gold with the Francisco Lindor commerce and subsequent contract extension. He discovered the proper president of baseball operations in David Stearns and the proper supervisor in Carlos Mendoza. More than something, Cohen upended the tradition inside, and round, the group. After a long time of carrying themselves like a mid-market group, the Mets grew into the primordial model of what they may very well be: a daunting machine, replete with gifted folks and an proprietor prepared to go the place others would not.
Soto’s signing signifies the subsequent step within the Mets’ evolution. This just isn’t but a championship group — their run to the NLCS this season took a stroke of fortune — however it’s obtained the bones of 1. And with Stearns’ know-how, Mendoza’s really feel and Cohen’s help, the Mets’ basis is rock stable, able to withstanding the tectonic shifts that fell lesser franchises.
A lineup with Lindor and Soto’s names within the first two spots and rising star Mark Vientos‘ within the third is nearly as good as any outdoors of Los Angeles, the place the group that ousted the Mets in October and went on to win the World Series resides. If there’s a correct blueprint to observe, it’s the Dodgers’, and Cohen just isn’t too proud to see success and try to duplicate it. New York’s depth does not match Los Angeles’ — even after signing Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas to affix a rotation with Kodai Senga and David Peterson — and it is unlikely to by Opening Day subsequent yr. Which is ok. Because the Mets usually are not attempting to win simply in 2025. They need to win in 2025 and 2026 and 2027 and 2028 and all the best way to 2039, when Soto’s deal is ready to run out.
Winning takes time, even for a group whose payroll may very well be the biggest within the main leagues for a 3rd consecutive season. Their farm system is not the place it must be, and getting there’ll develop into even harder with the back-of-the-round draft picks that accompany success. For all the Mets’ positives — Edwin Diaz patrolling the ninth inning, Brandon Nimmo taking skilled at-bats, Francisco Alvarez able to make the leap — a group is greater than its 10 greatest gamers. More expertise is required.
Soto is one hell of a begin. This October, his capacity to fulfill the second validated all of the plaudits lavished on him since his 2018 debut. He displayed his energy when it mattered. He spit on pitches simply outdoors the strike zone. He lived as much as an idealized model of himself and waltzed right into a free agent market frothing to reward him. Everything conspired in Soto’s favor. In a sport rightly obsessive about age, he was the uncommon 26-year-old accessible with no price however money. In a sport the place pitching frequently overwhelms hitting, he stands alongside Ohtani and Aaron Judge, his former Yankees teammate, as the highest hitters on the planet. In a sport frightened by free agent failures, he minimize the determine of a sure-enough factor that not solely the Mets and Yankees however the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays pushed themselves far past what they imagined they might in an effort to get him.
Because of the impossibility in predicting baseball, all of this might crumble spectacularly. For $765 million, the Mets might have signed a handful of fantastic free brokers. But for a betting man — Cohen made his riches on Wall Street — this appears to be like like the start of a golden period for Mets baseball. While the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies have owned the National League East and the Dodgers loom in any postseason run, Soto’s contract is a press release: The Mets are constructing one thing nice. So hop on board, lest the 7 prepare depart the station with out you.
Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, finalized his contract on the winter conferences in Dallas, the place baseball’s first true mega-contract was agreed to 24 years in the past, nearly to the day. Alex Rodriguez, additionally represented by Boras, was a 25-year-old whose 10-year, $252 million cope with the Texas Rangers doubled the earlier file assure. Rodriguez opted out of the deal in 2007 and re-signed for $275 million. The subsequent time anybody signed for extra was Giancarlo Stanton‘s 13-year, $325 million contract. That was in 2015.
For a decade and a half, Rodriguez’s offers stood as the usual. When Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract — which, on account of deferrals, has a present-day worth beneath $500 million — smashed the file for whole assure final winter, it appeared a protected guess to carry the mark for an extended whereas. It lasted lower than a yr.
That’s as a result of Juan Soto is Juan Soto, and since Steve Cohen is Steve Cohen, and since the sport is the sport, topic to vary at any second. And change it did Sunday, with {dollars} and years and selections and penalties — a brand new story able to be written.
