Juan Soto has made his long-awaited decision, and he's coming back to the NL East.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post was the first to report that Soto is signing a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets. Heyman says that the final bid from the incumbent Yankees was $760 million over 16 years. Joel Sherman of The Post says that the deal includes an opt-out after the 2029 campaign, the fifth year of the pact.
It tops the 10-year/$700 million deal that Shohei Ohtani received from the Los Angeles Dodgers for the largest total guarantee in MLB history. ESPN's Jeff Passan reports that it also doesn't include any deferrals, unlike Ohtani's deal, which had $680 million in deferrals and has a present-day value of just over $46 million per season as far as the luxury tax threshold is concerned.
Soto is coming off of arguably the best season of his career, as he hit .288 with 41 home runs, 109 RBIs, 129 walks a .989 OPS and an 8.1 WAR, per FanGraphs. He finished third in AL MVP voting, and won his fifth Silver Slugger Award. He also hit the go-ahead home run in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians that sent the Yankees to their first World Series since 2009.
Of course, Soto began his career with the Washington Nationals in 2018, and helped them to win a World Series in 2019. He was traded to the San Diego Padres in 2022, who the Phillies defeated in the NLCS. Wherever he's gone, the team has had success.
He's been particularly successful at Citizens Bank Park, as he's hit .327 with with 13 home runs, 39 RBIs and a 1.086 OPS in 38 career regular season games in Philadelphia. That led to Phillies fans hoping that the team would pursue Soto this offseason, reuniting him with former Nationals teammates Bryce Harper and Trea Turner. But managing partner John Middleton cast doubt on that back in November.
"I'm afraid Juan Soto wants to be in New York, and I don't mind being a stalking horse, " Middleton said, according to Conor Smith of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"At some point, if Dave and I get that feeling, we'll probably say 'You know what, we're not going to win this' because we've both been the stalking horse before. And if I were an agent, I would do it too. It's perfectly good strategy. I mean, it's smart. But at the end of the day, I just think he likes New York."
As it turned out, the Phillies never even met or presented an offer to Soto and agent Scott Boras, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic.
Alec Bohm for Ryan Pressly? Not enough.
But the Astros do have an intriguing trade candidate to consider if they end up as a suitor for Alec Bohm.
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