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The Mets landed the biggest acquisition of the offseason when they won the bidding war that led to Juan Soto inking a 15-year, $765 million deal with the franchise. Brett Baty subsequently agreed to part ways with the No. 22 jersey Soto has been rocking his entire career, and the third baseman got something in return thanks to the SUV his new teammate surprised him with at spring training.
Jersey numbers may not have any impact on a player’s performance, but many professional athletes have an attachment to the one they wear; that’s not the case with everyone, but plenty of guys purposefully pick one with sentimental value or to pay tribute to someone who inspired them.
That can lead to some awkward situations when a player ends up on a new team where someone has already claimed their preferred number.
In many cases, the athlete who wants to stick with theirs will simply fork over some cash to get their teammate to give them the number, but we’ve also been treated to some less straightforward deals; John Kruk once gave up his in exchange for two cases of beer, and former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe made Donovan McNabb mention his band at five press conferences and buy him an ice cream cone on top of the $5,000 he got from the QB.
That brings us to Juan Soto, who has been wearing No. 22 since he made his MLB debut with the Nationals in 2018. The superstar did the same during his one-and-done stint with the Yankees last season but encountered a slight issue after the Mets gave him the biggest contract in the history of sports thanks to Brett Baty, the third baseman who’d been wearing it.
It didn’t take long for Baty to confirm he’d be giving it up for No. 7 (a nod to José Reyes and Joe Mauer), and while it seemed safe to assume he’d received some sort of compensation, neither he nor Soto shed light on how they agreed to the deal.
However, Baty was officially rewarded by Soto on Thursday when he was surprised with the new SUV that was waiting for him outside of the Mets spring training facility in Port St. Lucie.
The SUV in question is a 2025 Chevy Tahoe that starts at $67,000 but can go for around $80,000 if you opt for all the bells and whistles—which Soto probably did when you consider that second number is 0.0001% of the money he’ll earn from his new contract (UPDATE: Soto said it actually set him back $92,000).
Must be nice.