How Juan Soto’s deal with the New York Mets is changing baseball

DALLAS – Fifteen years, $765 million, no deferred money. The numbers of Juan Soto’s contract with the New York Mets, agreed to Sunday night and setting a new standard for the largest contract in professional sports history, tell a story. A baseball-loving phenom from the Dominican Republic entered the big leagues at 19, immediately blossomed, bet on himself two years ago by turning down a $440 million contract offer and now arrives with a record number of dollars and years – and reminds the sports world of the endless possibilities when extreme talent meets a free market.

However, it is not the only story. This is about both the Mets and Soto — a franchise that has lived in the shadow of its thoroughbred neighbor throughout its 63-year existence. No longer. Not after the two New York teams were in a neck-and-neck race for a player who spent 2024 in the Bronx but moved to Queens for a long-term commitment.

Think about it for a second. A Yankee chose to be a Met. And not just any Yankee: One who helped lead the storied franchise to the World Series this year, one to whom the team was equally willing to pay more than $700 million over 15 seasons. The sheer size of Soto’s contract — bigger than Shohei Ohtani’s contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, bigger than Lionel Messi’s with Barcelona, ​​bigger than Patrick Mahomes’s with the Kansas City Chiefs — boggles the mind. Even more impressive is the Mets’ brilliance from a team whose weaknesses were the defining characteristic of an archetypal free agent target.

And for that, every avid Mets fan, from Astoria to Jamaica, from Whitestone to Far Rockaway, can thank Steve Cohen. When Cohen purchased the team in 2020, there was hope – something that had previously been in short supply for Mets fans. One of the richest men in the world, with an estimated fortune of $20 billion, bought their team. And he was ready to build a juggernaut.

Cohen’s first four years as owner were marked by failures, but they were no longer the defining characteristic of the franchise. He found what he was looking for with the trade with Francisco Lindor and the subsequent contract extension. He found the right president of baseball operations in David Stearns and the right manager in Carlos Mendoza. More than anything, Cohen upended the culture within and around the organization. After decades of behaving like a middle-of-the-road team, the Mets evolved into the original version of what they could be: a fearsome machine packed with talented people and an owner willing to go where others wouldn’t go .

Soto’s signing represents the next step in the Mets’ development. This isn’t a championship team yet – promotion to the NLCS this season was a fluke – but it has the bones of one. And with Stearns’ expertise, Mendoza’s instincts and Cohen’s support, the Mets’ foundation is rock solid and capable of withstanding the tectonic shifts that have toppled smaller franchises.

A lineup with Lindor and Soto in the top two spots and rising star Mark Vientos in third is as good as any outside of Los Angeles, home to the team that ousted the Mets in October and later won the World Series won. If there’s a real plan to follow, it’s the Dodgers’ one, and Cohen isn’t too proud to see the success and try to replicate it. New York’s depth doesn’t match Los Angeles’ – even after signing Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas to a rotation with Kodai Senga and David Peterson – and it’s unlikely to be the case by Opening Day next year . Which is fine. Because the Mets don’t just want to win in 2025. They want to win in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 and into 2039, when Soto’s contract expires.

Winning takes time, even for a team whose payroll could be the highest in the major leagues for the third straight year. Their farm system isn’t where it should be, and getting there will be even more difficult with the draft picks that accompany success. For all of the Mets’ positives – Edwin Diaz patrolling the ninth inning, Brandon Nimmo as a pro hitter, Francisco Alvarez ready to make the jump – there is a team made up of more than its 10 best players. It takes more talent.

Soto is a damn good start. This October, his ability to meet the moment confirmed all the praise he has received since his debut in 2018. He showed his power when it mattered most. He spit on pitches just outside the strike zone. He lived up to an idealized version of himself and threw himself into a free agent market that was just waiting to reward him. Everything conspired in Soto’s favor. In a game rightly obsessed with age, he was the rare 26-year-old with no cost but cash available. In a game where pitching routinely outweighs hitting, he is the best hitter in the world alongside Ohtani and Aaron Judge, his former Yankees teammate. In a game dreaded by free agent failures, he cut a compelling figure that not only had the Mets and Yankees, but also the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays go far beyond what they had imagined to get him pick up .

Because of the impossibility of predicting baseball, this could all fail in spectacular fashion. For $765 million, the Mets could have signed a handful of outstanding free agents. But to one betting man — Cohen made his fortune on Wall Street — this looks like the start of a golden era for Mets baseball. While the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies own the National League East and the Dodgers appear in every postseason round, Soto’s contract is a statement: The Mets are building something great. So get on so that line 7 doesn’t leave the station without you.

Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, finalized his deal almost to the day at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, where baseball’s first true mega-contract was signed 24 years ago. Alex Rodriguez, also represented by Boras, was a 25-year-old whose 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers doubled the previous record guarantee. Rodriguez backed out of the deal in 2007 and re-signed for $275 million. The next time someone signed more was Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year, $325 million contract. That was in 2015.

For a decade and a half, Rodriguez’s deals were considered standard. When Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract – now worth less than $500 million due to deferrals – broke the record for total guarantees last winter, it seemed like a safe bet Brand to last long during. It took less than a year.

That’s because Juan Soto is Juan Soto, and because Steve Cohen is Steve Cohen, and because the game is the game that can change at any time. And it changed on Sunday, with dollars and years and decisions and consequences – a new story ready to be written.