A report from November claimed that New York Mets owner Steve Cohen was “willing to go $50M over whatever” New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner or other would-be buyers offered to sign Juan Soto in free agency.
It turns out Cohen didn’t have to go quite that far to convince Soto to relocate from the Bronx to Queens before Christmas.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan and others reported that the 15-year, $765M contract Soto will receive from the Mets once the agreement becomes official includes a $75M signing bonus, an opt-out after five years, no deferred money and a structure that could allow the deal to exceed $800M total. To compare, ESPN’s Buster Olney shared that the Yankees’ final offer was $760M over 16 years with an annual average value of $47.5M and no deferrals.
According to MLB insider Andy Martino of SNY, the Yankees “were in the lead for Soto all through the process, through the weekend and late [Sunday] afternoon” until Cohen closed the deal.
Agent Scott Boras previously said that Soto wanted “ownership that’s going to support that they are going to win annually,” and it appears Cohen sold the All-Star outfielder on a vision that includes team president of baseball operations David Stearns building upon what he achieved in his first year with the organization that ended with the Mets completing a trip to the National League Championship Series.
