Max Fried and the New York Yankees have agreed to a $218 million, eight-year contract, the largest deal for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the agreement, first reported by ESPN, was subject to a successful physical.
Fried, who turns 31 in January, gets the fourth-highest contract among pitchers behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million), the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole ($324 million) and Washington’s Stephen Strasburg ($245 million), who hasn’t pitched since 2022 and has retired. Fried broke the mark for lefties set by David Price at $217 million.
Fried spent his first eight seasons with the Braves, making the All-Star team in 2022 and 2024. He had his first big season in 2019, finishing 17-6 with a 4.02 ERA.
He was 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, finishing fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting. The three-time Gold Glove winner had his best season in 2022, going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA.
Fried was 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA in an injury-hampered 2023 season, then was 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA over 29 starts this year.
The right-hander was the seventh overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft by San Diego and was traded in a 2014 in the deal that sent Justin Upton to San Diego.
“It’s like his biological clock is ticking,” agent Joel Wolfe said Tuesday at the winter meetings. “And if the team’s not winning it’s driving him crazy every day, every night all through the offseason. And he takes it so personal, like it’s all on him.”
An eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove third baseman, Arenado is open to a switch to first base. He hit .272 with 16 homers and 71 RBIs this year, his poorest season in a decade.
St. Louis acquired Arenado from Colorado ahead of the 2021 season, lost at the wild-card round in his first two years, then failed to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
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“The Cardinals are changing direction, which is fine. All teams do that,” Wolfe said. “So if that’s the way it is and they’ve said it might be beneficial to move you and they were open and communicated about it, he’s like: ‘I get it. Let’s just try and find a place where they’re in a different place,’ where he could just jump in and help the team go to the next level.”
Arenado has played 1,629 games in the field during his big league career, all at third base. He won Gold Gloves from 2013-22, matching Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki for winning the award in his first 10 seasons.
Arenado told Cardinals president baseball operations John Mozeliak he is open to a position switch.
“If it would make Mo’s job easier to get to the right team, Nolan is more than willing to move around,” Wolfe said, quoting his client as saying, “‘I’m not insulted to go play first and I can win a Gold Glove over there if that’s what it takes.'”
“He wanted to be just the first to offer that so that Mo could tell other teams that,” Wolfe said.
Arenado has a .285 career average with 341 homers and 1,132 RBIs for the Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. He is owed $74 million for the final three seasons of a contract paying him $275 million over nine years.
He has a full no-trade provision, giving him the ability to decide his destination.
“It’s more of just an ongoing discussion of: Would you be OK with this team? Would you be OK with that team?” Wolfe said. “We don’t want to waste Mo’s time and there some hard nos of where he would prefer not to go and things like that. It’s been somewhat dynamic in the discussion about how that works.”
DALLAS — In another world, Juan Soto is about to enter his eighth season for the Nationals, his future already cemented in Washington as his Hall of Fame trajectory plays out for a team still trying to claw its way back toward contention and relevancy.
But he was thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.
After back-to-back last-place finishes following their stunning 2019 championship run, the Nationals were cellar-dwellers again in the summer of 2022 when they gave their superstar a substantial offer, one that nobody would have faulted Soto for taking. Three years prior, Mike Trout had signed a 12-year, $426.5 million extension with the Angels that made him the richest player in the sport. The Nationals were prepared to top that for Soto, at the time a 23-year-old phenom who already had three top-10 MVP finishes, two All-Star appearances and a batting title under his belt.
They offered him $440 million over 15 years.
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Soto, to the surprise of many, turned it down.
It was a risky bet on himself but one that would be bountifully rewarded less than two years later — he agreed Sunday to a mind-boggling, landscape-altering 15-year, $765 million pact with the Mets — and one that provided some insight into what he desired.
He had experienced the euphoria of winning it all, but the elation was fleeting. The Nationals had a losing record in the shortened 2020 season and won just 65 games in 2021 before things spiraled further in 2022. At the time Soto received his offer, the Nationals were already more than 30 games under .500 by the break, in last place by 27.5 games. Soto was tired of losing, and the Nats couldn’t entice him to stay, not with their future so uncertain.
So, they traded him to San Diego, where, at least for a brief moment, the decision to forgo the payday seemed in danger of backfiring on the Scott Boras client. Soto slashed .236/.388/.390 over the final 52 games of the 2022 season, still considerably above average but hardly the type of elite numbers that would garner the highest offer in MLB history.
And then Juan Soto turned into Juan Soto again. The Padres reached the National Leage Championship Series for the first time since 1998. Despite losing to the Phillies, Soto produced a .944 OPS during the series, offering the tantalizing combination of power and patience at the plate that would eventually command an unfathomable offer from an owner willing to go where no one thought possible.
Soto’s work the next two years — in 2023 in San Diego, where he launched 35 homers, led the majors in walks for a third straight season and hit 55% better than league average; and even more so in 2024 in the Bronx, where he hit a career-high 41 homers, transformed the Yankees lineup from one of the worst to one of the best in baseball and helped them reach the World Series for the first time in 15 years — raised the stakes for all interested parties. (Four teams reportedly offered Soto at least $700 million.)
“This was a year that he was setting himself up for this type of deal,” Giants manager Bob Melvin, who coached Soto in San Diego, said Monday at MLB’s winter meetings. “I don’t know that anybody could have really predicted what the number would be, but if anybody is going to get money like that, it’s going to be Juan.”
There’s only one precedent for a player as talented as Soto hitting the open market at his age — Álex Rodríguez in 2000 — which is why it’s the only precedent for the length and size of the contract Soto received in comparison to his peers.
Considering how quickly Soto rose through the ranks to superstardom and how teams are increasingly finding creative ways to keep their young stars in uniform through their prime before they’ve established their full value — Ronald Acuña Jr., Fernando Tatís Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Corbin Carroll and Bobby Witt Jr. all received nine-figure extensions at the age of 23 or younger, and the Brewers even inked then-19-year-old Jackson Chourio to an eight-year extension before he’d made his MLB debut — it’s unlikely anyone currently playing in the majors will get a deal like Soto’s.
The next-closest comparison is Bryce Harper, who was also entering his age-26 season when he signed his 13-year, $330 million deal with the Phillies in 2019, but Soto had produced better slash-line numbers across the board through his first six years than Harper did and was worth nearly nine more wins than Harper in that time, per Baseball-Reference’s calculation. This winter, Soto figured to top both Harper’s total and that of his former Yankees teammate, Aaron Judge, who got nine years and $360 million after the slugger’s 62-homer season. Getting more than both Harper and Judge combined, however, seemed preposterous.
Soto doesn’t offer the power of Judge, but he’s one of nine players in MLB history to hit 200 homers before the age of 26, and there are few players in the history of the game — regardless of age — who have reached base at a greater clip than Soto. His career .421 on-base percentage currently stands as the second-highest mark for any player who debuted in the past 75 years. Moreover, Soto’s career 158 wRC+ is higher than that of Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays.
The deeper the Yankees’ run continued this year, the higher the figures seemed to rise — $500 million? $600 million? $700 million?! — especially with billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen pushing the envelope. If he wants something, and money is the primary driving force, he’s capable of getting it. In the case of Soto, it meant going to absurdly unprecedented lengths.
Shohei Ohtani annihilated all concepts of what was once considered possible with his landmark 10-year, $700 million contract last December, a deal that obliterated the sport’s previous highwater mark in total value by more than $250 million. But that number was something of a mirage. The stunning deferrals in the two-way star’s contract lowered his total present-day value to around $460 million, a number that figured to pay for itself even before he won his third MVP award and led the Dodgers to a World Series championship in his first year with the club, given the many revenue streams he opened up for the Dodgers due to his international appeal and their ownership group’s ability to put his money to work.
Soto won’t be able to replicate that off-field value. On the field, his below average baserunning and defense put a cap on his production — his 7.9 bWAR this past season easily represented a career high — and might force him off a corner outfield spot halfway through the deal. He has never been an MVP, but he has finished in the top three in voting twice and has produced the fifth-most WAR in the majors since he entered the league as a 19-year-old in 2018. The only players with a higher wRC+ than Soto in that time are Judge, Trout and Yordan Álvarez. Since the shortened 2020 season, the only MLB player who has clearly offered more overall offensive value is Judge, who was entering his age-31 season when he signed his extension two winters ago.
Together, Judge and Soto made magic. For one season, they combined to form one of the greatest tandems in baseball history. With Soto now joining Francisco Lindor, the Mets have created a new dynamic duo, even if it won’t be quite the same for Soto as hitting in front of Judge.
Still, Soto’s skill set should allow him to thrive in any lineup. In 2024, Soto paired a 99th percentile barrel and hard-hit rate with a 100th percentile expected batting average and walk rate. He’s an unrelenting, shuffling force in the box with an exceptional understanding for the strike zone. No player had ever recorded more than 670 walks before turning 26; Soto is at 769, and he has walked more than he has struck out in each of the past five years.
He is one of the most well-rounded hitters we’ve ever seen, and he just turned 26 during the World Series. His ability to reshape a team’s offense over the next decade was enticing enough to shatter any preconceived notions of his worth.
A year after Ohtani earned an unthinkable amount of money, it was no longer the largest deal in the sport.
“I certainly didn’t see that happening,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
There are no deferrals in Soto’s record-setting deal, no means of lowering the luxury-tax hit. In fact, he could opt out after the first five seasons and would hit free agency again at 31 years old if the Mets don’t add another $4 million to each of the final 10 years of this deal, which would raise the total value of the contract above $800 million.
It’s an astronomical figure, but paying for a superstar’s mid-to-late-20s is a lot different than getting them in their 30s. Most of the cautionary tales of teams signing sluggers to megadeals fall into the latter camp.
In March 2014, a soon-to-be 31-year-old Miguel Cabrera signed an eight-year, $248 million extension that, when added to his existing contract, gave him the largest deal of all time. He played at a below replacement level for the final seven years of the pact. Albert Pujols never finished in the top 15 in MVP voting in any of his 10 seasons with the Angels after signing for $240 million a few weeks before his 32nd birthday, as he averaged between 1-2 WAR per year over the course of the entire contract. Both Pujols and Cabrera, of course, were perennial MVP candidates prior to signing those contracts.
There’s no way to know with any certainty when a player’s downturn will begin or health will deteriorate. Trout, for instance, had played in at least 139 games in seven of eight seasons leading into the record extension he signed with the Angels as a 27-year-old in 2019. He was seemingly as sure a bet as anyone to continue his production well into his 30s, only to have injuries limit him to 453 of the Angels’ 870 games following the extension. Soto, for what it’s worth, has been incredibly durable to this point, playing in at least 150 games in each of the past five full seasons. And his keen eye should help make up for any waning power as he enters his 30s, even if maintaining this level of production for the next 15 years is improbable.
If Soto can be a 6-8 WAR player for each of the next five years, or a 4-8 WAR player for each of the next 10, would that make him worth between $765-$805 million? It’s hard to fathom, but that was the risk ultimately required to reap the potential reward.
The team that Soto picked also matters in answering the question.
For many clubs, committing $51-55 million per year would significantly handicap their ability to build a competitive roster. That shouldn’t be the case for Cohen, who once bought an Alberto Giacometti sculpture for a reported $141.3 million — after he had already spent nearly $101 million on another.
The billionaire is operating in a different financial stratosphere from the rest of his competition, has a lot of money coming off the club’s books in 2025, doesn’t appear fazed by the luxury-tax penalties or surcharges that will arise in his quest to lift the Mets into a perennial contender and wasn’t going to forgo what might be the only chance he’ll get to secure a free agent of Soto’s talent in his prime years. No matter the cost or overpay, in an in-state battle for the best free agent on the market, he wasn’t going to relent.
Even with Soto, the team’s estimated payroll for the upcoming season is still $85 million less than it was last season. Expect Cohen to keep adding. As long as that continues to happen for the next 15 years, and Soto can help bring championships to Flushing, Mets fans won’t care about how much one WAR should be worth.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do when he’s 40,” Soto’s former manager, the Nationals’ Dave Martinez, said. “But I know what he’s going to do come Opening Day.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
DALLAS — For the New York Yankees, there is no relief in discovering that their brand — the rich history and the weight of the pinstripes — mattered little to Juan Soto. Monument Park was calling the slugger’s name all year as he andAaron Judge combined to post arguably the best offensive season in MLB history by teammates not named Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. A century later, Soto had the opportunity to build a Yankees legacy had he decided to spend the remainder of his career on 161st Street.
But, make no mistake, this wasn’t about loyalty. Judge’s decision to accept a lesser contract offer from the Yankees in his 2022 free agency was connected to his homegrown odyssey through their system. Soto owed no such fealty to the franchise, and he was free to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Yankees organization with an open mind during his 2024 season in the Bronx. No matter how the Yankees slice it, Soto looking beyond their 44 Hall of Fame players, 27 championships, and 59 playoff appearances is a gut punch.
That context matters as the team navigates where to go from here. If there’s a world where losing Soto to the crosstown Mets (despite a nearly equal offer) can be a positive for the Yankees, then Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman must find a way to migrate there. Like Steinbrenner said at last month’s owners’ meetings in Manhattan, “I know what’s expected of me.” After the Soto fallout, he is still expected to pivot to a strong Plan B and make the most of the offseason by spreading the finances he reportedly offered the top free agent on the market ($760 million over 16 years) between a few different impact players who could fill his club’s glaring roster holes.
Let’s examine three areas the Yankees must address to revive their offseason with the ultimate goal of winning their first championship since 2009.
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1. Outfield
Who will be roaming right field for the Yankees on Opening Day? The club might handle its Soto-sized hole a couple of different ways. Judge can move back over to right, where he’s played the most games in his major-league career. Jasson Domínguez, the organization’s No. 1 prospect, could take over in center field, where he’s played 239 minor-league games versus 58 games in left field and one game in right.
Such a defensive formation would free up space for the Yankees to acquire free-agent left fielder Teoscar Hernandez, who would be a terrific fit in the Bronx after his strong season with the championship Dodgers. Hernandez set career highs in home runs (33) and walks (53), all while playing 154 games (second-most on the Dodgers behind Shohei Ohtani), earning his third career Silver Slugger award. The Yankees saw firsthand how impactful Hernandez can be this past season, first in June when he swatted an eighth-inning grand slam to propel the Dodgers to a series win, and then again in the World Series as he posted a .931 OPS during L.A.’s triumph.
Beyond Hernandez, the Yankees could also go for free-agent right fielder Anthony Santander and keep Judge in center while shifting Dominguez to left. Santander, like Hernandez, is another power-hitting corner outfielder who set a career high in home runs (44), RBIs (102), walks (58) and OPS (.814) in a full season. The Yankees have watched Santander rake on the Orioles in the AL East for the past eight years, and it would be ideal for them to flip the script there. But their commitment would likely have to be higher and longer on a deal for Santander, who is just 29, than they would for Hernandez, who figures to land a shorter contract since he’s 31.
Either way, the Yankees need to land one of those two corner outfielders to replace Soto, because there’s a huge drop-off in talent after them.
Replacing Anthony Rizzo with someone in-house, like Ben Rice, would’ve been a fair path to take had the Yankees managed to sign Soto. But since they didn’t, Cashman & Co. should be going for one of the two top first basemen on the market. Either Pete Alonso or Christian Walker could help make up for Soto’s production in the lineup, but neither of them will come cheap. That shouldn’t be a problem, though. As noted, the Yankees should be going for players at the top end of the market with the money that was originally offered to Soto. So, which direction makes the most sense for the Yankees now?
Let’s tackle the Alonso argument first. The Yankees could respond to Soto bolting to the Mets by stealing the Polar Bear from Queens. It would definitely sting for the Mets, since Alonso is a homegrown slugger, half the jerseys that fans wear around Citi Field are his No. 20, and president of baseball operations David Stearns has said multiple times this offseason that they “would love to bring Pete back.” Beyond the New York rivalry, Alonso is an obvious match for the Yankees with their hole at first and need for power. The 30-year-old is said to be looking for a long-term contract in the range of five years, and the Yankees might have some concerns about Alonso’s defensive value toward the end of that deal, as his eventual role figures to be designated hitter.
Then there’s Walker, who is four years older than Alonso, but has been markedly better and more consistent on defense throughout his career. Since 2019, Walker leads all first basemen in outs above average (58), and nobody is even close to sniffing that kind of defensive value. At the plate, Walker doesn’t have Alonso’s power numbers, but his 95 homers over the past three seasons would represent a notable upgrade from what they’ve been getting. (The last first baseman to homer for the Yankees was fill-in DJ LeMahieu — in July). Walker’s age could be a red flag for an upcoming decline, whereas Alonso prioritizes staying on the field. Only Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson have played more games at first base than Alonso since his 2019 debut.
These are the types of discussions the Yankees brass are having at this week’s winter meetings as they determine which direction to go. It’s also clear that the club can’t wait too long to make a decision given how weak the market for first basemen is beyond Alonso and Walker.
3. Starting pitching
Give credit to the Yankees for making sure Gerrit Cole stayed in pinstripes after he exercised his opt-out earlier this offseason. The attention has now shifted to the rest of the rotation, particularly whether the supporting cast is solid enough to be a dominant force in the playoffs. The emergence of Luis Gil was a huge boon for the staff, and it will be interesting to see how he builds on that success in his sophomore season after winning Rookie of the Year. Even with Gil’s help, the Yankees should still be shopping at the top of the market in both free agency and trades.
Starting with the latter, White Sox ace Garrett Crochet would be a great fit in the Bronx given his age (25) and trajectory. As evidenced by reliever-turned-starter Clarke Schmidt, the Yankees are big fans of converted starters, and Crochet immediately found success in 2024 in his first full season in a rotation. The southpaw struck out 209 batters across 32 starts, posting a 3.38 ERA in 146 innings. Saddling him with Cole and Carlos Rodón would give the Yankees one of the better pitching trios in baseball.
Looking at free-agent starters, Corbin Burnes is widely viewed as the best option available. He’ll certainly be the most expensive, but that shouldn’t be an issue with Soto’s departure. The 29-year-old ace is coming off his fourth consecutive All-Star season, this time with the Orioles, registering a 2.92 ERA and 1.096 WHIP across 32 starts and 194.1 innings. Beyond the obvious advantage of adding a star like Burnes to complement the in-house ace in Cole, his immediate and smooth success with Baltimore after being traded demonstrates that he can excel in a new environment (and league). That’s important to the Yankees as they look for players who have the rock-solid demeanor to handle New York.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
The Los Angeles Dodgers expect Shohei Ohtani to be ready to hit when the reigning World Series champions open their season in Japan against the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19.
“I don’t think he’d have it any other way,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday of the NL MVP who had left shoulder surgery last month. “That’s our expectation.”
Coming off his third MVP award, Ohtani is doubtful to pitch while recovering from elbow surgery in September 2023. Roberts said a mound appearance in Japan is “very unlikely.”
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“I just don’t see us starting the clock in March to then think that we would keep that continuously going through October,” Roberts said during the winter meetings. “Then that would call for a break or reprieve in the middle of the season, so I don’t know. I still think unlikely.”
Ohtani had surgery Nov. 5 to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder, an injury the 30-year-old sustained while sliding during a stolen base attempt in Game 2 of the World Series on Oct. 26. He didn’t pitch at all during the first season of his $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers while recovering from surgery on the elbow, which previously underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2018.
Shohei Ohtani joins ‘MLB on Fox’ crew to discuss Dodgers winning the 2024 World Series
“It’s not cemented. If something doesn’t look right, feel right, obviously we’ve got to pivot. Maybe a lot of disappointed fans,” Roberts said. “We’re going to do what’s best for Shohei. But where we stand right now, I expect him to play.”
These were Juan Soto’s numbers in 2024: 41 home runs, 109 RBIs, a .288 batting average.
Keep doing that over the next 15 years, and he’ll be making roughly $1.2 million for every home run. Or $467,890 for every RBI. Or $307,229 for every hit.
He’ll make $314,815 per game. Based on his numbers this season, he’d get $671,053 for every extra-base hit. Or $46,322 every time he swings the bat — no matter if he misses, hits a tapper back to the mound or has Mr. Met celebrating in the stands after driving one out at Citi Field. Of course, that’s assuming Soto remains as healthy and productive as he was in 2024. If he misses significant time, those rates just go up.
“Thank you Uncle Steve,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo wrote on social media.
Some of the numbers around the sports world, when broken down by accomplishment, are simply eye-popping in this era. (And keep in mind, these examples are based on current earnings, not taking into account restructurings or any other potential changes.)
A look:
The two-time Cy Young winner will earn about $65 million in 2025, most of which is a signing bonus that comes his way in January. He has also never made more than 32 starts in a season. If he makes 32 starts in 2025, he’d be getting (when factoring in the signing bonus) $2,031,250 per game. For comparison’s sake, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal made $2.65 million for the entire 2024 season — and won a Cy Young award.
His record $700 million deal is no longer a record because of the Soto deal, but Ohtani still holds the mark for average total value at $70 million a year. The only member of baseball’s 50-50 club (54 homers, 59 stolen bases in 2024) would — at this past season’s rate — be making $619,469 every time he hits one out or steals a base.
It’s unfair to break down his stats this year because he’s hurt, but Prescott’s current deal is worth an average of $60 million a season from Dallas. Based on his career average, that means over the lifetime of his current contract, Prescott gets $13,680 for every passing yard.
NFL: Quarterbacks in general
The per-game numbers in the NFL for starting QBs are wild. Patrick Mahomes’ current $450 million contract isn’t even at the top of the cash-per-game standings: Prescott gets about $3.5 million for every regular-season game, while Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Green Bay’s Jordan Love are around $3.25 million/game.
At nearly $56 million this season, Curry leads the NBA salary race (for this year, anyway). The NBA’s all-time 3-point king is earning about $680,000 per game in 2024-25; if he was paid by the 3-pointer only, he’d be getting about $161,908 every time he makes one of those this season.
Brown is starting a five-year deal worth around $285 million, Tatum will start a five-year deal next year worth around $314 million. At those rates, the Celtics would be paying their two best players (at their current scoring paces) around $27,406 for every point scored. To compare — Larry Bird, for his career, made about $1,100 per point.
Based just on his MLS-guaranteed salary, Messi got just over $1 million per goal this season ($20.4 million, 20 goals). Again, just counting the MLS salary — his full deal with Inter Miami is worth at least $150 million for 2.5 years — Messi made $229 for every second he was on the field during the 2024 regular season.
Scheffler’s official earnings in 2024 were $29,228,357 (plus an Olympic gold medal, which is priceless). And that doesn’t include $34,037,500 million in bonuses and unofficial earnings, including $25 million for winning the FedExCup. Add it all up, and that meant the world’s No. 1 player earned about $11,243 per shot he took this season.
He’ll start a contract next year that will pay him an average of $14 million a season over eight seasons. At his current rate of scoring, he’d be earning roughly $119,393 for every goal or assist over that span.
Shesterkin just got the richest extension for a goalie, $92 million over eight years. At his current averages, every time he makes a save, he’ll be earning $5,084.
Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, making Soto the highest-paid athlete in sports history. Craig Carton, Danny Parkins, and Mark Schlereth react to the news and ask if it’s a good signing by the Mets.
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.
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.
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.
DALLAS — Talk about a New York City robbery. It wasn’t just the top free-agent jewel that the Mets stole from the Yankees; Steve Cohen hijacked the crown, too.
Less than two months after Juan Soto helped take the Yankees to the World Series, Cohen’s Mets blew him away Sunday with the largest contract in professional sports history. Soto did end up going to the highest bidder — the Mets’ reported pact with the slugger is for $765 million over 15 years. But the Yankees’ offer apparently wasn’t too far behind, bringing into question whether Soto wanted to play in Queens all along.
If that’s the case, then there could be a couple of factors that swayed him one borough over.
The Yankees’ reported offer of $760 million over 16 years would’ve given Soto an average annual value of $47.5 million, which is just $3.5 million shy per year of what he’ll earn with the Mets. Soto’s Mets deal also reportedly includes a $75 million signing bonus. If that difference in dollar amount is all that mattered to Soto, then it makes sense that he agreed to the highest offer on the table. But since the Yankees’ offer was pretty close to what he ended up agreeing to, it sure seems like Soto wanted to make a statement that both fan bases in New York won’t take lightly.
The Mets — not the Yankees — represented the more appealing long-term destination to Soto in part because of how much they were willing to spend, no doubt. But Cohen also prioritizes getting to know the people in his organization — from players, to front office personnel, to security staffers — on an intimate level. He forms that relationship by routinely appearing on the field, walking through the Mets clubhouse, and just simply being available and around. Cohen’s wife, Alex, spends time around the Mets dugout, catching up with players during batting practice, too. It’s rare for any owner in professional sports to be as visible as the Cohens are with the Mets. Just take a look at the situation across town.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t mingle in the clubhouse, and is rarely spotted around Yankee Stadium to talk with his players. One former Yankees player who spent eight seasons in pinstripes said he spoke to Steinbrenner just once or twice during his time in the Bronx. Steinbrenner has a closer relationship with captain Aaron Judge, particularly after Judge’s frenzied 2022 free agency that resulted in Steinbrenner getting on the phone and completing a long-term pact with the Yankees slugger. Judge confirmed as recently as last month that he has an open line of communication with Steinbrenner, and he appreciates that availability from the owner.
Apparently, Steinbrenner doesn’t share that same dynamic with many in the building, let alone the guy who was his No. 1 priority this winter. Soto asked Steinbrenner, when the two sides met in California last month, why he didn’t approach him during this past season in the Bronx, and he wondered why the owner didn’t try to form a closer relationship with Soto. Steinbrenner, fairly or not, said he wanted to give Soto space because he was so clearly locked in, enjoying his best career season, and he didn’t want to get in the way of that.
In the end, waiting to form a close relationship with Soto might have been a colossal mistake on Steinbrenner’s part.
Cohen’s players routinely voice how much they love playing for the Mets because it feels like a family. There’s an open trust around Citi Field, particularly during this David Stearns/Carlos Mendoza era. Mets players have said they feel like they can be themselves in Queens.
One recent moment that painted a picture of the Cohens feeling like “one of the guys” to left-hander Sean Manaea was when Alex Cohen’s dad, affectionately known as Mets grandpa, was doused in champagne in the middle of their clubhouse after they advanced to the National League Championship Series.
Through that everyday visibility, Cohen sends the message that he cares about his team. And for the players that go through the 162-game grind of a season, in hopes of reaching October and ultimately being the last team standing, having that open relationship with the top brass in the organization matters a great deal. Shortstop and de-facto captain Francisco Lindor says it all the time: It takes every single person in the organization to win, and that includes the responsibility of the ownership to form a close relationship with players, the front office working hard to fill roster holes, and the manager sticking up for his clubhouse.
As MLB’s winter meetings unfold in Dallas this week, Cohen’s commitment to winning has never been clearer.
No one was going to stop him from acquiring Soto, certainly not the crosstown rival Yankees nor MLB’s luxury tax penalty, when all he had to do was continue to increase his offer. When Cohen bought the Mets franchise in 2020, he said he wanted to win the World Series in the ensuing 3-5 years. The upcoming season will be Year 5. Snatching Soto from the Yankees was a statement-making step in that championship-caliber direction, and the Mets are a threat to win it all with the generational slugger suiting up in the orange and blue — for the next decade and a half.
Welcome to the newest era of Mets baseball, where the little brother might have just become the bully.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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.
