Sunday night the news the baseball world was waiting for finally broke.
Juan Soto had agreed to a market-shattering ten-year deal with the New York Mets, for $765 million.
While the top-line number exceeds what the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani for last year (Ohtani’s contract hit the $700 million mark) there are some other factors that make Soto’s deal an eye-popping agreement. While Ohtani deferred $680 million of that contract into the future, Soto’s deal does not include any deferred money, according to reports.
In addition, Soto’s contract with the Mets reportedly contains escalators, that could push the total value of the contract up to $800 million.
That, coupled with a post on social media from Monday morning, got us thinking: What else could you — or in this case, Mets owner Steve Cohen — do with that kind of money?
You could have paid Tom Brady and LeBron James
Here is the above-referenced statistic that caught our attention this Monday:
That’s right. For what the Mets are paying Soto — again, without factoring in potential escalators — they could have paid the career earnings for both LeBron James and Tom Brady, two of the most-successful athletes in United States professional team sports history.
You could run an F1 team for a few seasons
Formula 1 is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and particularly here in the United States. Sunday’s season finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, brought the 2024 season to a close, one of the most exciting in recent memory as McLaren and Ferrari fought until the final laps of the year for the Constructors’ Championship.
If Steve Cohen wanted to get in on the F1 game, he could have run a team for at least a few seasons with the money he is going to pay Soto.
Here is how.
For the 2021 season, in an effort to promote competition and parity, the sport instituted a “cost cap,” capping each team’s expenditures per season at a certain amount without penalty. Teams that are found to exceed this number, which for the 2024 season was set at $135 million per team, can be hit with financial penalties, and even sporting penalties for egregious violations.
However, there is a catch. Certain expenditures are excluded from the calculation under the cost cap, such as travel costs and marketing expenses. If you have followed F1 in recent years, you know that there is both a lot of travel, and a lot of marketing.
In addition, the salaries of key figures, including drivers, is also excluded. So unless you want the overly-aggressive dad and/or the highly-caffeinated you encounter at your local go-kart track driving for you, you’ll need to spend some more money for drivers.
Still, you could operate an F1 team for at least a few seasons, or you could pay Juan Soto.
Soto’s contract is nearly equal to top-5 QB contracts in NFL history combined
Deshaun Watson has the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history at $230 million. If you add together the guaranteed money from the top 5 contracts in NFL history, it’s $787 million for Watson, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, and Justin Herbert. — Matt Warren
10+ opening day rosters by the Oakland Athletics
$765M for Soto is just under the last 11 seasons combined for the A’s opening day rosters ($778M).
This one isn’t very interesting but I did the math anyway:
It’s roughly the same as the combined career earnings of Barry Bonds ($193 million), Albert Pujols ($342 million), and Manny Ramierez ($240 million). — Matt Warren
Juan Soto could be the king of Juan and Soto
Okay, so “king” might be overstating a lot here — but he could have the nicest available homes in the area.
According to Zillow the highest-priced mansion in San Juan, Puerto Rico is currently selling for $18M and featured five bedrooms with nine bathrooms (frankly a wild ratio). The 16,000 sf home has everything you’d want.
Meanwhile the highest-priced luxury home in Soto del Real, Madrid is roughly $660K.
This means Juan Soto could buy the highest-priced homes in San Juan and Soto del Real for chump-change. Definitely worth it. — James Dator
Why not buy an island in Thailand?
For roughly 1⁄4 of Soto’s contract he could be the owner of a 110 acre island in Thailand, complete with electricity, fresh water, and cell phone service. YOUR OWN ISLAND! YOUR OWN ISLAND IN THAILAND!
You could legitimately hire a staff to farm on part of the island, build villas, and have an entire town to yourself in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.
The 18 largest contracts in White Sox history
New York and Chicago should be big market rivals bidding against each other for superstars. Instead, the owners in Chicago choose to treat their teams as if they play in a mid-sized market, and no one is more responsible for it than Jerry Reinsdorf. As owner of the Chicago Bulls, Reinsdorf has turned a global brand into a national laughingstock by acting like an absentee landlord. Reinsdorf’s true love is baseball, and as owner of the Chicago White Sox, all he’s done is preside over the worst team in the modern history of the sport this past season.
The biggest contract in White Sox is a five-year, $75 million deal to Andrew Benintendi given out two years ago. It’s an utterly pathetic top signing for a purported big market team, and is all the evidence you need that Reinsdorf has been a cheap and lazy steward of the franchise. In fact, Soto’s new contract is worth more than the 18 biggest contracts in White Sox history.
The White Sox and Mets should have a lot in common as the second most beloved MLB franchises in big cities. The difference is that the Mets actually try to win, while Reinsdorf just cries poor as he tarnishes one of the country’s greatest sports cities. — Ricky O’Donnell
