Sports

The New York Mets Literally Broke The Model With Juan Soto’s Insane $765M Contract

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The New York Mets and owner Steve Cohen sent the Major League Baseball world into shock on Sunday with the signing of superstar outfielder Juan Soto. Soto, who starred for the rival New York Yankees last season, agreed to a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets.

To break that down a little further, Soto will make $51 million per season. That works out to just a tick under $140K per day for the next 15 years. Presuming he plays every single game over the next 15 seasons (he won’t), Soto will earn $314,814.81  per game played for the Mets.

Now, those numbers are ridiculous enough as is. But Cohen isn’t exactly likely to miss the money. With an estimated net worth of $21.3 billion, the hedge fund manager is the wealthiest owner in all of baseball. For reference sake, he’s worth $5.3 billion more than Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. And personal beliefs aside, spending money on sports franchises is one of the least damaging ways these uber-rich billionaires can spend their money.

But not everyone spends in the way that Cohen spends. In fact, nobody spends in the way that Cohen spends. Don’t believe us? Just ask MLB reporter Travis Sawchick of The Score.

Sawchick recently compiled what he calls the “Scrooge Index.” The metric measures each MLB team’s payroll in comparison to their annual revenue.

Unsurprisingly, the Rays, Athletics and Tigers find themselves on the wrong end of the list. Each of those teams spent just about a third of their annual revenue on payroll (not including additional operating expenses).

The Los Angeles Dodgers, long-considered the MLB’s big spenders, invested 67 percent of the $637M they brought in on payroll. That would be tops in the league. If not for Cohen and the Mets.

New York led the league with a WHOPPING 102 percent 0f revenue spent on payroll. The Mets brought in $441M last and spent $450M. That is before the Soto deal.

Cohen and New York aren’t just outspending everyone else, they’re breaking the model. For better or worse, this is the new normal going forward. We’ll all just have to wait and see how it works out.