As teams make their bids for free agent Juan Soto, the terms of his potential record-setting contract are becoming clearer.
On Thursday, two reports indicated that the Boston Red Sox are not only prepared to offer Soto the largest contract in franchise history but could potentially make it the biggest free-agent deal in baseball history, depending on the structure of deferred payments.
Mike Rodriguez, citing unnamed sources in Boston, reported that Soto has a standing offer of 12 years at approximately $50 million per season, totaling $600 million. Meanwhile, Hector Gomez of z101 Digital reported a competing figure: a 13-year, $625 million offer from the Red Sox.
For context, the largest contract in baseball history belongs to Shohei Ohtani, who signed a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, with $680 million of Ohtani’s salary deferred, the MLB Players Association calculates the present-day value of his contract at $437,830,563.