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Hard-throwing Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki was posted to Major League Baseball teams and will be available to sign as a free agent from Tuesday through 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 23.
The Chiba Lotte Marines said on Nov. 9 that they planned to make the 23-year-old Sasaki available but waited until less than a week before the end of the posting period.
Because he is 23, Sasaki is considered an international amateur by MLB and is limited to a minor league contract subject to the international signing bonus pools usually allocated for 16-year-old Latin American prospects. The 2024 signing period ends Sunday and the 2025 period opens on Jan. 15, with team pools ranging from $7,555,500 to $5,146,200.
Teams may trade for additional pool allotment in $250,000 increments starting Jan. 15 but are limited to adding 60% of their initial amount.
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Chiba will receive a posting fee from the acquiring MLB team equal to 25% of the signing bonus.
[Read more: Who is Roki Sasaki? What to know about the Japanese pitching sensation bound for MLB]
When Shohei Ohtani agreed to join the Los Angeles Angels in December 2016 at age 23, he received a $2,315,000 signing bonus. Ohtani had salaries of $545,000, $650,000 and $259,259 (in pandemic-shortened 2020) during his first three seasons, earned $3 million, $5.5 million and $30 million in his three years of arbitration eligibility and then agreed to a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season.
Sasaki is represented by Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group and is expected to become one of the most sought-after pitchers on the market. He went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games this year, striking out 129 hitters in 111 innings.
[Read more: Ten biggest contracts in MLB history: Juan Soto’s $765 million with Mets tops list]
Sasaki helped Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His fastball has been clocked at 102.5 mph, and he has a 29-15 career record with a 2.10 ERA over four injury-shortened seasons with the Marines. He pitched a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes in April 2022 — racking up 13 straight strikeouts and finishing with 19.
“Since I joined the team, the team has been listening to my thoughts about my future MLB challenge, and I am very grateful to the team for officially allowing me to post,” Sasaki said in a Nov. 9 statement posted by the Marines on the social platform X.
“There were many things that did not go well during my five years with the Marines, but I was able to get to this point by concentrating only on baseball, with the support of my teammates, staff, front office, and fans. I will do my best to work my way up from my minor contract to become the best player in the world, so that I will have no regrets in my one and only baseball career and live up to the expectations of everyone who has supported me.”
The Athletics, Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Seattle and Tampa Bay enter the international signing period with $7,555,500 available for each.
Arizona, Baltimore, Cleveland, Colorado, Kansas City and Pittsburgh have $6,908,600 apiece, followed by Atlanta, Boston, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels, New York Mets and Yankees, Philadelphia, San Diego, Texas, Toronto and Washington at $6,261,600.
Houston and St. Louis each have $5,646,200, and the Dodgers and San Francisco have $5,146,200.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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From the moment Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets, the accompanying tagline has been that he’s the richest owner in baseball. That manifested more than ever on the eve of the 2024 winter meetings, as the Mets and superstar outfielder Juan Soto on Sunday night reportedly agreed to a 15-year, $765 million deal. It is the largest (and longest) deal in MLB history, topping Shohei Ohtani‘s $700 million pact with the Dodgers from last year.
Here’s a look at the top 10 deals ever doled out in MLB, and how those players performed after signing their historic contracts.
(Note: these values are based on data from Spotrac.com)
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Juan Soto’s new contract has set a record, but there are some complexities to it.
The newest New York Mets star agreed to a 15-year, $765 million deal with his former team’s crosstown rival late Sunday night. Not only does the contract surpass the $700 million deal that Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers last offseason, but it’s also the largest deal in North American sports history.
Here’s what else we know.
No deferred money
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Unlike Ohtani’s contract, Soto will receive zero deferred money, according to ESPN.Ohtani memorably had $680 million of his $700 million contract deferred, which brought the average annual value of the contract for Competitive Balance Tax purposes down to $46 million, as estimated by MLB. So, the $51 million average annual value of Soto’s contract would be the richest in MLB history, at least as it relates to the luxury tax.
It could end up being worth more than $800 million
As part of the deal, Soto received a $75 million signing bonus, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.
But the deal has the potential to become even richer. It includes escalators that would bring its value to more than $800 million, according to ESPN.
There’s an opt-out clause
The deal also allows Soto to potentially become a free agent again in his prime. Soto, 26, will have an opt-out following the fifth season of the deal in 2028 when he’s 31, according to multiple reports.
However, the Mets can void Soto’s opt-out if he were to exercise that option. In that event, New York would escalate the average annual value of his contract from $51 million to $55 million over the final 10 seasons of the deal, according to Rosenthal.
Soto rejected big-money offers from the Yankees and Red Sox
Soto also turned down multiple offers worth at least $700 million. His former team, the New York Yankees, made him a 16-year, $760 million offer, the New York Post reported. As the total value of the Yankees’ offer fell just short, it was believed that Soto’s old club was in the lead to land his services before Mets owner Steve Cohen “came in from the top rope,” to get the deal done, SNY reported.
The Boston Red Sox, who were also in on Soto, made an offer that was worth around $700 million over 15 years, per MassLive. It was reported earlier in the week that the Toronto Blue Jays had a bid that was competitive with what the other teams in the sweepstakes were pitching at the time, while the Dodgers were just a little bit behind.
Even though anyone would be happy to be in a position to juggle multiple $700 million offers, Soto seemed to be overjoyed by his decision on Sunday. His brother posted a video on social media of Soto getting sprayed by drinks, ending the priciest sweepstakes in the history of North American sports.
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Juan Soto is remaining in New York, but he’s switching boroughs.
The superstar outfielder has agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, the New York Post reported Sunday. The contract is the largest in total value in MLB history, surpassing the 10-year, $700 million pact Shohei Ohtani signed to join the Los Angeles Dodgers last offseason.
With the deal, the Mets add one of the most talented young hitters in recent memory and will have him for several of his prime seasons. Soto, 26, posted a .288/.419/.569 slashline with 41 homers and 109 RBIs to help the Yankees reach the World Series in his first and only season in The Bronx.
Soto, a four-time All-Star, is already a well-decorated player for his age and has even drawn comparisons to all-time greats like Ted Williams. Although he’s yet to win an MVP award, he finished third in AL MVP voting this past season, marking his fourth top-six MVP finish over the last six seasons. Among active hitters, he ranks 20th in career batting average (.285), first in on-base percentage (.421), fourth in slugging percentage (.532), third in OPS (.953) and 11th in at-bats per home run (16.3). He’s also recorded 201 homers and 934 hits in 936 career games.
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Soto’s free agency has been highly anticipated in MLB circles over the last few years. He reportedly turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract extension from the Washington Nationals in 2022, just three seasons after he helped them win a World Series. That contract rejection led the Nationals to trade Soto to the San Diego Padres in July 2022. Soto and the Padres reached the NLCS later that season, but San Diego traded him to New York after the team had a disappointing year in 2023.
Even as the Yankees made their run to the World Series this past season, Soto’s free agency continued to dominate headlines. By the time the offseason began, only a handful of teams met and extended him an offer as he was projected to sign a contract worth at least $600 million.
The process to sign Soto moved relatively quickly after teams met with him and his agent, Scott Boras, at his agent’s office in Southern California in November. At that point, it was expected that Soto would sign a deal by the end of the winter meetings, serving as one of the first major dominoes to fall this offseason.
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Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday by the classic era committee.
Parker received 14 of 16 votes and Allen got 13. A vote of 75% or more was needed for election.
They will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 27 along with players voted in by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 21.
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Tommy John was third with seven votes on a committee that considered candidates whose primary impact was before 1980. Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris and Luis Tiant each received less than five votes.
Parker, 73, hit .290 with 339 homers and 1,493 RBIs for Pittsburgh (1973-83), Cincinnati (1984-87), Oakland (1988-89), Milwaukee (1990), California (1991) and Toronto (1991).
He won World Series titles in 1979 and ’89, was the 1978 NL MVP, won the 1977 and ’78 NL batting titles and was a seven-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove right fielder.
Allen, who died in 2020 at age 78, hit .292 with 351 homers and 1,119 RBIs from 1963-77 for Philadelphia (1963-69, 1975-76), St. Louis (1970), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1971), Chicago White Sox (1972-74) and Oakland (1977).
Known as Richie Allen with the Phillies before asking to be referred to as Dick for the rest of his career, Allen was a seven-time All-Star who was voted the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1972 AL MVP.
Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Félix Hernández are among the 14 players eligible for the BBWAA ballot for the first time in the upcoming vote. Holdovers include Billy Wagner, who was five votes shy last January.
Parker never got more 24.5% during 15 appearances on the BBWAA ballot from 1997-2011. He was on fewer than six ballots from the 2013 expansion era committee and was on seven from the 2019 modern era committee, which considered candidates from 1970-87.
Allen received a high of 18.9% on the BBWAA ballot from 1983-97, then fell short in a series of committee votes.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Willy Adames has agreed to a $182 million, seven-year contract with San Francisco, providing the Giants with a power-hitting shortstop in the prime of his career, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday on condition of anonymity because the agreement was pending a physical. ESPN first reported the move.
The 29-year-old Adames is coming off his best offensive season in the big leagues after hitting .251 with a career-high 32 homers and 112 RBIs with the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s a solid shortstop with a strong arm and good range, though his defensive metrics slipped a little in 2024.
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He also has provided consistent power with 150 homers over seven seasons. He broke into the big leagues in 2018 with Tampa Bay and hit 20 homers in his first full season in 2019.
He was traded to the Brewers in 2021 and had one of his best seasons in 2022, slugging 31 homers with 98 RBIs and had a 4.3 WAR.
Adames was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 2012 as a 16-year-old in the Dominican Republic.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Deciding whether Juan Soto tops Shohei Ohtani for baseball’s largest contract could be in the eye of the beholder because of all the deferred money in Ohtani’s deal.
Ohtani agreed last December to a $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, easily exceeding the previous high set when Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels struck a $426.5 million, 12-year agreement through 2030.
Ohtani’s deal includes $680 million in deferred money payable from 2034-43. There are several interpretations of how to value that deal in current dollars:
Soto could get a contract of 10-to-15 years for $600 million or more.
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His agent, Scott Boras, is not a big fan of deferred money and thinks teams might not insist on delaying the cash.
“I think it’s much less of an issue than it was before,” Boras said. “Deferral as a mechanism for me, is it: Will it impede my ability to get the greatest asset I can acquire? And the answer to that is, I don’t think they’re going to want to do anything that impedes their primary pursuit and goal.”
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The interest figure used for discounting to determine luxury tax value is set in the collective bargaining agreement as the federal mid-term rate defined in section 1274(d) of the Internal Revenue Code for the October preceding the initial contract year.
That rate dropped to 3.7% this offseason, which meant if Ohtani’s deal had been agreed to this month, its annual luxury tax value would have been about $49.3 million. That would have resulted in an additional $3.5 million annual tax bill for the Dodgers, who would exceed the top threshold and would pay additional tax at a 110% rate on each dollar.
MLB’s regular payrolls, which use the same rate as the one for calculating the qualifying offer price based on the 125 largest contracts, use the prime rate set by JPMorgan Chase on the preceding Nov. 1 plus 1%, rounded to the nearest full percentage point. That figure dropped to 9% for this offseason.
Deferred compensation must be funded by the second July 1 after the season in which it was earned, discounted to a present-day value at a 5% rate.
Los Angeles owes deferred payments just over $1 billion due from 2028-46 to Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Teoscar Hernández, Blake Snell and Tommy Edman.
“It’s just trying to kick dollars down the road,” St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said at the general managers’ meetings last month.
Ohtani’s payments are two-thirds of the total owed.
“It was a unique situation for where a club was, a unique situation for a player who has very significant earning potential outside of strictly his compensation from a club,” New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “Those other ones are much more representative of what you see in sort of standard contracts around the industry. Each organization, each ownership group is going to have a slightly different perspective on this, on how they’re calculating the returns off of that deferred compensation.”
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Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said his team’s leadership from Guggenheim Baseball Management has the expertise to fund deferred compensation wisely.
“A lot of our ownership group are from financial background and can have that money going to work right now,” he said.
MLB proposed during collective bargaining on June 21, 2021, to put an end to the practice.
“For contracts entered into after the effective date of the Basic Agreement, deferred compensation of any kind will not be permitted,” the proposal read, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
That idea was rejected by the union and not included in the five-year agreement that expires in December 2026.
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman thinks his team’s large resources encourage players to seek their money as soon as possible.
“We’re open to deferrals,” he said. “A lot of times players are less open to doing deferrals for us than they are for maybe other markets, but if we can do stuff that benefits us, of course we will.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers announced on Thursday that star first baseman Freddie Freeman “underwent surgery on his right ankle consisting of debridement and the removal of loose bodies.” He’s expected to be ready for spring training.
Freeman suffered an ankle injury in the final week of the regular season but played through it in the postseason — and proceeded to put on a show in the Fall Classic.
In the Dodgers’ five-game series win over the New York Yankees in the World Series, Freeman blasted four home runs and drove in 12 runs, helping him win MVP of the series. Furthermore, Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning in Game 1 of the series at Dodger Stadium.
In the regular season, Freeman totaled 22 home runs and 89 RBIs, while posting a .282/.378/.476 slash line, 4.7 WAR and 1 DRS at first base.
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Freeman, 35, is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $162 million deal with the Dodgers.
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Is there anything more enjoyable than bonding over sports with loved ones while winning some cash?
People get to do exactly that every week with our free-to-play FOX Super 6 contest.
With opportunities to win thousands of dollars, the Super 6 game gives fans a new reason to get excited about sports.
The contest — which has been live since the beginning of the 2023 NFL season — has already given away a ton of cash.
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This season, across all contests (NFL, College Football, NFL Network and MLB), more than $239,000 in cash and prizes has been awarded.
Let’s take a look at a few of our recent winners.
Home of the Braves
Les from North Georgia won the MLB Championship Super 6 contest, perfectly fitting for him as an Atlanta Braves fan.
“I’ve been playing Super 6 since September, and knowledge is my strategy,” the retiree explained.
While Les’ rooting interest is in the Braves, he does have a bold prediction about how the rest of the college football and NFL seasons will play out.
“It’s hard to win it all,” he said, “but I do think the Buckeyes, Dawgs and Falcons will make the postseason.”
College Football, MLB Reign Supreme
Justice from Maryland is one of our recent winners who chose not to tell his folks right away about his good fortune.
“No, I haven’t told my family yet, but I do plan to start my Christmas shopping earlier than later,” the college football Week 9 winner revealed.
And then there’s Midwest Jeff, a software engineer from Minnesota, who abandons strategy when it comes to FOX Super 6.
“I just pick and pray,” he admitted after cashing in on the FOX Super 6 MLB World Series contest.
Les (left) and Justice are two of the most recent FOX Super 6 winners to cash in. –> <!–>
West Coaster Cashes In
NFL Week 6 winner Michael from Washington admits that he was shocked when he found out he had won.
“When I realized it was actual and factual, I was in disbelief,” the beverage industry worker told us. “I told my family and friends, and their reaction was very similar to mine — shocked and excited.”
When it comes to his favorite team, Michael is a diehard Raiders fan. “I have been a fan of the Raiders since they were in Oakland, then L.A., back to Oakland and I’m still a fan now that they’re in Vegas.”
So what does he plan to do with the cash?
“Although I did not win the Super Bowl, I will be going to Disneyland!”
Michael from University Place, Washington, is excited about taking a Disney trip. –> <!–>
Terrible Towel, Wonderful Winner
Dakota from Pittsburgh works in finance and won the NFL Network contest in October.
“I’ve been playing for about two years and make selections primarily based off of the players’ opponents,” she explained. “A receiver or running back that might not be top 10 can still have dominant performances against weaker teams or a team facing injuries.”
The Steelers fan also gave us her bold prediction for the season.
“T.J. Watt is locked in this year, so Defensive Player of the Year is his for the taking. I think the Steelers will definitely make the playoffs and will hopefully make a run for a Super Bowl.”
Dakota enjoys watching her favorite team. –> <!–>
Super 6 at a Glance
Every week, the contest challenges its participants with fun, knowledge-oriented questions. We dug into the data to grab a few nuggets from the weeks that our highlighted winners won.
MLB League Championship Contest
There were four perfect entries in the MLB League Championship contest. Les took the top prize via the tiebreaker by most accurately predicting the final score of Game 4 of the NLCS when the Dodgers beat the Mets 10-2.
College Football Week 9
Ranker questions continue to be our most difficult question each week. During college football Week 9, Justice was part of only 1.95% of entries that correctly ordered Question No. 4: “Order the following by who will have the MOST TOTAL YARDS (highest to lowest)” as DJ Giddens > Omarion Hampton > RJ Harvey > Kaleb Johnson.
MLB World Series
The easiest question in the World Series contest was Question No. 6: “Who will win GAME 4 of the World Series? Yankees or Dodgers?” It was a relatively even split between picks, but Jeff was part of 48.7% of entries that correctly picked the Yankees to beat the Dodgers.
NFL Week 6
The hardest non-ranker question for NFL Week 6 was Question No. 1: “Who will have the MOST RECEIVING YARDS?” Michael was part of 11.9% of entries that correctly picked Chris Godwin, who had 125 receiving yards over A.J. Brown, CeeDee Lamb and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Your Turn!
So how can you join in on the fun?
It’s simple.
Just look out for our next FOX Super 6 contest, and when it goes live, try your hand to see if you can win.
The best part is that it’s free.
Your lucky day could be a few guesses away. Head to the app and start playing now!
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