Juan Soto contract: Six numbers from across sports that put MLB star’s $765 million in context

Juan Soto has agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, the largest contract in sports history by total value. But it’s even more eye-popping when you examine it from a different perspective. Just how much is $765 million when you look all across sports, and you look at players and teams?

Here are six ways to put Soto’s historic deal in even crazier context (thanks to Spotrac and Cot’s Baseball Contracts for payroll and salary numbers).

Juan Soto’s $765 million contract is more than … 

1. … the current 2025 payroll commitments of all 10 teams in the AL and NL Central divisions.

There’s a big payroll disparity in baseball between the highest-revenue and lowest-revenue MLB franchises. The Mets play in a division where three teams (including them) are expected to be in the top 10 in payroll this season, and they play in the same city as the Yankees, who should also be a top-10 payroll team. And obviously there’s a lot of time for teams to add players and their salaries to the books for the 2025 season. But if you look at the current payroll commitments for this upcoming season of the teams in the AL Central and NL Central, and you ADD THEM UP, it doesn’t match what the Mets will pay Soto over the next 15 years. Those 10 teams are currently committed to a little less than $760 million in payroll for 2025, and they are mostly teams that don’t typically break the bank in free agency. Those divisions include seven of the bottom 12 in current payroll commitments.

2. … both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Athletics have paid to players in the past 10 seasons.

The A’s and Pirates are notorious for carrying low payrolls, but neither of those teams has spent the total on Soto’s contract over the past 10 seasons! The Pirates’ payroll over the past 10 seasons (2014-23) adds up to almost $747 million, a difference of more than $18 million from Soto’s massive contract. The three largest contracts in Pirates history have been signed in the past three years: Bryan Reynolds ($106.75M), Mitch Keller ($77M) and Ke’Bryan Hayes ($70M). If you added those up and them tripled them, it still wouldn’t match Soto’s 15-year contract.

The Athletics have spent just more than $753 million on payroll over the past 10 seasons. Last year they spent a league-low $64.4 million on their payroll, just 26% more than Soto will make per season on this deal.

3. … the combined bonuses paid to every MLB first-round draft pick in the past five years.

Draft picks have their salaries and bonuses capped, unlike MLB free agents, but the top pick can still make more than $10 million on his first contract. And with compensatory picks given to teams, there are almost 40 players drafted in the first round every year.

If you add up the bonuses that every single one of those first-round picks has received over the past five years — a total 190 draft picks — the total is a little more than $747 million. And that doesn’t even include Kumar Rocker, who was drafted 10th by the Mets in 2021 but didn’t sign; he would’ve made about $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 had two of the longest, most-productive careers we’ve seen at that position. And if you add up their on-field earnings it comes out to about $581.7 million. They would’ve needed to play almost until they were 50 to catch up to what Soto will make 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 nothing like they are today, but Jordan set records towards the end of his career. And James entered the league at the right time and has had a massive impact on taking those salaries even higher. It’s still crazy to see on paper that those two players have (so far) combined for just $622.6 million in career salaries (this, of course, does not include the money they made through advertisements and other off-court ventures). If LeBron were to keep going long enough, perhaps he could get this duo over the Soto threshold.

6. … what the Kansas City Chiefs have spent (in cash) on player salaries in the past three years combined.

The Chiefs are trying to match the Green Bay Packers from the 1920s and ’30s as the only NFL teams to three-peat as league champions. And they’ve got a quarterback on a 10-year, $450 million contract.

But if you look at what they paid out to their roster during their back-to-back Super Bowl championship seasons, and add what they’re paying this year in their attempt to win three straight, it comes out to a hair less than $760 million.

The Mets will pay more than that to one player on a deal that runs until the year 2039, when Patrick Mahomes turns 44 years old.