Report: Mets, Yankees latest offers to Soto believed to top $700M
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The New York Yankees and New York Mets are believed to have upped their offers to superstar free agent Juan Soto to between $710 million and $730 million, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
This would eclipse Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million contract last off-season with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the biggest deal in the sport's history.
"It is believed the Mets may be slightly higher as of Saturday night, but the respective offers appear to be within shouting distance," Heyman wrote, also noting it's possible the Toronto Blue Jays or Boston Red Sox could be in range or above the Yankees' and Mets' offers.
"The Red Sox and Blue Jays are also believed to have placed very competitive bids, while the superteam Dodgers, with less need to add yet another superstar, surprised folks just by going well over $600M," Heyman wrote.
Multiple reports indicate Soto is nearing a decision with baseball's winter meetings set to unofficially begin Sunday in Dallas. Neither agent Scott Boras, nor Soto himself, has given a definitive timeline of when a decision might arrive.
Soto is the clear No. 1 player available this winter, coming in at the top spot on TSN's Top 75 MLB Free Agents list from last month. TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips predicted in the piece that Soto would sign with the Mets for 14 years and $701 million, ever so slightly topping Ohtani's deal from last off-season.
Soto hit a career-best 41 home runs last season with the New York Yankees and slashed .288/.419/.569. He also drove in 109 runs and led the league with 128 runs scored.
The 26-year-old upped his play in the postseason, hitting .327 with four homers and nine driven in as the Yankees reached their first World Series since 2009. While they were defeated in five games by the Dodgers, Soto's dramatic home run in Game 5 that sent New York to the championship round remains one of the signature moments of his career, which also includes a World Series title with the Washington Nationals in 2019 as a 21-year-old.
Soto made his MLB debut in May of 2018 and spent the first five seasons of his career with the Nats before being dealt to the San Diego Padres in the summer of 2022. Soto spent a season and a half in Southern California before ending up with the Yankees in another blockbuster trade last off-season.
All in all, Soto is a four-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger and the winner of the 2020 batting title and 2022 Home Run Derby in addition to his World Series title.
Through seven big league seasons, he has a .285/.421/.532 slash line with 201 home runs and 592 RBI in 936 regular season games.