Juan Soto entered into a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York MetsTHE the largest contract in the history of sports in total value. But it’s even more striking when you look at it from a different perspective. How much is $765 million when you consider all sports, players and teams?
Here are six ways to put Soto’s historic deal into even crazier context (thanks to Spotrac and Cot’s Baseball Contracts for payroll and salary figures).
Juan Soto’s $765 million contract is more than…
1. …the current 2025 salary commitments for the 10 teams in the AL and NL Central divisions.
There is a large salary disparity in baseball between the highest earners and the lowest earners. MLB franchise. The Mets play in a division where three teams (including them) are projected to be in the top 10 in payroll this season, and they play in the same city as the Mets. Yankeeswhich should also be a top 10 payroll team. And obviously, teams have plenty of time to add players and their salaries to the books for the 2025 season. But if you look at the current salary commitments for this upcoming season from AL Central and NL Central teams, and ADD them , that doesn’t add up to what the Mets will pay Soto over the next 15 years. These 10 teams are currently committed to just under $760 million in payroll for 2025, and these are mostly teams that don’t typically break the bank in free agency. These divisions comprise seven of the bottom 12 in terms of current salary commitments.
2. … both Pittsburgh Pirates And Athletics have paid to players over the past 10 seasons.
The A’s and Pirates are known for having low payroll, but neither team has spent Soto’s entire contract over the last 10 seasons! The Pirates’ payroll over the past 10 seasons (2014-23) is nearly $747 million, a difference of more than $18 million from Soto’s massive contract. The three biggest contracts in Pirates history were signed in the last three years: Bryan Reynolds ($106.75 million), Michael Keller ($77 million) and Ke’Bryan Hayes ($70 million). If you add them up and triple them, it still won’t add up to Soto’s 15-year contract.
The Athletics have spent just over $753 million on payroll over the past 10 seasons. Last year, they spent the lowest amount in the league, $64.4 million, just 26% more than Soto would make per season under this deal.
3. … the combined bonuses paid to every MLB first-round pick over the past five years.
Salaries and bonuses for draft picks are capped, unlike MLB free agents, but the top pick can still earn more than $10 million on his first contract. And thanks to the compensatory picks granted to teams, nearly 40 players are drafted in the first round each year.
If you add up the bonuses each of these first-round picks received over the past five years — a total of 190 draft picks — the total is just over $747 million. And that doesn’t even include Kumar Rockerwho was drafted 10th by the Mets in 2021 but did not sign; he would have made around $6 million, so that still wouldn’t get us to Soto’s number.
4. …the combined career on-field earnings of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
NFL contracts have exploded recently, especially for quarterbacks, and Brady and Manning have had two of the longest and most productive careers we’ve seen at the position. And if you add up their on-field winnings, that comes to about $581.7 million. They would have had to play almost until age 50 to catch up to what Soto would do over the next 15 years.
5. …the combined career on-court earnings of LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
NBA Salaries in the 80s and 90s were nowhere near what they are today, but Jordan set records toward the end of his career. And James entered the league at the right time and made a huge impact in increasing those salaries even further. It’s still crazy to see on paper that these two players have (so far) combined for just $622.6 million in career salaries (this, of course, doesn’t include the money they have earned through advertisements and other off-field activities). If LeBron were to keep this up long enough, maybe he could get this duo over Soto’s threshold.
6. …what the Kansas City Chiefs spent (in cash) on player salaries over the last three years combined.
The Chiefs are trying to match the Green Bay Packers of the 1920s and 1930s as the only NFL teams three rounds as league champions. And they have a quarterback with a 10-year, $450 million contract.
But if you look at what they paid their roster over their consecutive campaigns Super Bowl championship seasons, and add in what they’re paying this year in their attempt to win three in a row, that comes to less than $760 million.
The Mets will pay more than that to a player under a contract that runs through 2039, when Patrick Mahomes turns 44.