The Juan Soto sweepstakes are crawling along, with the star outfielder having fielded initial offers from five teams recently. There is no indication that Soto is even close to making a decision on where he'll play out his next contract, and it's been reported that multiple rounds of bids are expected.
It also was revealed recently that Soto prefers a 15-year deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
"While a very short deal at super high annual salary could make some sense since he would still become a free agent again in his 20s, word is out that that doesn’t interest him, especially since he’s expected to receive opt-outs in any long deal," Heyman wrote.
Scaling the deal, the highest-paid player in terms of AAV is his 2024 Yankees teammate Aaron Judge. Judge earns $40 million per year. At that rate, Soto's contract would be worth $600 million. Presuming Soto expects to become the highest-paid non-pitcher, he could eye a $650-700 million deal at 15 years.
Last offseason, Shohei Ohtani signed a $700 million contract for 10 years with the Dodgers, however the cash payouts are largely deferred. Additionally, Ohtani is a two-way player that bats and pitches at a high level. Soto is one of the best in MLB at the plate, but most experts expect him to field a smaller contract in AAV than Ohtani since he doesn't bring the same two-way impact.
With so many big market teams interested, if a 15-year deal is a deal-breaker for Soto, there's reason to think there is a strong chance he'll get it. Already, competition among interested teams has led to initial offers being improved and tweaked in Soto's favor.
