QUEENS, N.Y. — The record-setting, $765 million contract between Juan Soto and the Mets pushed the club, by its own admission, beyond its comfort level. The same can likely be said for a now-reset economic order across the rest of Major League Baseball. But the Mets and owner Steve Cohen happily did the deal anyway.
The Mets formally introduced Soto on Thursday afternoon during a high-profile press conference at Citi Field, and Cohen freely acknowledged both the need and desire to venture far into uncharted territory to land a “generational talent” like Soto.
“If you want something that’s amazing, it’s going to be uncomfortable. It’s never going to be comfortable,” Cohen said. “So I always stretch [financially].”
By moving nearly 10% beyond the industry’s previous high-water mark—Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers from just a year ago—and doing so without any deferrals, the Mets will likely be the target of some criticism from small-market teams. That, too, is being dismissed.
“I’m focused on the Mets and trying to win a World Series with the Mets,” said David Stearns, Mets president of baseball operations, in response to a Front Office Sports question about the lower-revenue clubs. “So I’m not particularly concerned about that.”
To that end, Stearns said he thought there was a “less than 50% chance” of the Mets signing Soto in the final hours before he made his choice, and Cohen at multiple points cited the several other clubs in fervent pursuit of the 26-year-old outfielder.
“This was a competitive process with many teams involved. It was hard to know where you stood, and it was a moving target,” Cohen said. “But in the end, I got the call I wanted.”
A New-Look Mets
The 15-year contract—the longest player deal in MLB history in addition to the richest ever in sports—also aims, at least indirectly, to reset the local baseball paradigm with the Mets now assuming a very different image relative to the crosstown Yankees.
It’s a sizable shift from more than 60 years of the Mets being known as often-lovable underdogs, and Cohen is eagerly embracing that.
“This [signing] puts an accent on what we’re trying to do and it accelerates our goal of winning championships,” Cohen said. “But more importantly … my goal has been to change how the Mets are viewed. I think we’re really on the path of changing that.”
No Pressure?
Soto, for his part, sought at the press conference to downplay the immense scrutiny likely to follow his unprecedented signing. More than a generation ago, star MLB shortstop Alex Rodriguez signed a similarly historic deal with the Rangers, for a then-unfathomable $252 million—and was quickly overwhelmed by the burdens that came with it.
Instead, Soto repeatedly lauded the tight relationship quickly forming between Mets leadership and his own family.
“The money is definitely going to be there, but I was really impressed with what [the Mets] showed that they can do,” Soto said.
