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Juan Soto agrees to record deal with Mets (sources)

Juan Soto and the Mets agreed to a record-breaking 15-year, $765 million contract Sunday night at the start of the winter meetings in Dallas, sources told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The club has not confirmed the deal.

Soto’s contract will surpass the 10-year, $700 million contract that two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers last offseason – at the time the largest contract in MLB history.

According to a source, Soto’s deal includes no deferment and a $75 million signing bonus. According to a source, the Mets’ highest offer exceeded that of the Yankees, who took Soto’s bat to the 2024 World Series and offered him $760 million over 16 years. The Mets’ average annual deal value ($51 million) exceeded the average annual value of their crosstown rivals ($47.5 million) by $3.5 million.

Soto was undoubtedly the best player available in free agency this winter – not just because of what he accomplished with the Yankees in 2024, but his first seven MLB seasons put him on the fast track to the Hall of Fame .

After being traded from San Diego to New York last December, Soto hit a career-best 41 home runs in 2024 with the Bronx Bombers. He also set single-season career highs in runs scored (128), extra-base hits (76) and bWAR (7.9). Those numbers ranked first, fifth and fifth in the American League, respectively.

Soto was equally impressive in the postseason, batting .327 with a 1.102 OPS across 64 plate appearances. He hit four home runs during the playoffs, including a three-run dinger in the 10th inning of ALCS Game 5 against the Guardians, which gave the Yankees their first pennant in 15 years.

But long before his recent exploits, the 26-year-old Soto had already established himself as one of the most talented hitters in baseball history. In more than 4,000 career plate appearances, he owned a .285/.421/.532 slash line. His on-base percentage is the best among active major league players.

His 160 career OPS+ ranks eighth in MLB history among players through age-25 seasons (minimum 3,000 PA). The seven names before Soto are either inducted into Cooperstown or are on their way to future enshrinement: Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Mike Trout, Jimmie Foxx, Albert Pujols, Tris Speaker and Rogers Hornsby. Only Mantle and Foxx had a better career OBP than Soto at that age.

Soto began his professional career with the Nationals, who signed him as an international free agent in 2015. Three years later – and after playing a total of eight games above High-A – the 19-year-old Soto was called up to the majors. He began this season ranked No. 29 by MLB Pipeline in baseball. He finished with 22 home runs and a .923 OPS in 494 plate appearances. That remains the best single-season OPS by a teenager in MLB history (at least 400 PA).

The left-handed prodigy hit 34 homers in 2019 — the most by a 20-year-old in the National League since Frank Robinson’s 38 homers in 1956 — but his most impressive long balls came during the World Series. Soto went deep three times in the ’19 Fall Classic, including a majestic home run off Astros ace Justin Verlander in Game 6. Soto scored two more hits in Game 7 en route to the franchise’s first championship.

Soto topped all players in on-base percentage (.490) and slugging percentage (.695) during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. At the end of the year, he took home the first of his five Silver Slugger Awards. After another great campaign in 2021 — a .999 OPS and an NL-best 7.1 bWAR — Soto was sent to the Padres before the 2022 trade deadline in a trade that gave the rebuilding Nats a bevy of top-tier prospects. Soto collected 83 extra-base hits in 750 at-bats with San Diego before hitting the road again last winter.

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