It’s wild to get a huge report like this from before the lockout, but I’ll absolutely take it! There’s not much else going on …
Washington Nationals star outfielder Juan Soto got a massive extension offer from the team before the lockout kicked in, but he wasn’t biting:
Juan Soto turned down a 13-year, $350 million contract from the Washington Nationals before the lockout, according to this @Enrique_Rojas1 report. In the story, Soto confirms the offer.
More from Enrique at @ESPNDeportes: https://t.co/zNnlWTb9Rd
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 16, 2022
The notion of Juan Soto receiving the first $500 million contract in American professional team sports is not far-fetched. He'll be 26. There's already a $43 million-a-year player in his former teammate, Max Scherzer. If he stays healthy and productive, it's very realistic.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 16, 2022
Reportedly, the deal would’ve kicked in for the 2022 season, and did not include the National Special (tons of deferred money). This is a perfectly reasonable offer by the Nationals.
Soto has three years of arbitration left, during which time he’s going to make a massive amount of money anyway. He’s projected to make over $16 million this year, which could put him in line for something crazy like $25 million and $35 million in his final two years of arbitration. So there’s a lot of security already there for him in turning down the third largest extension in MLB history (Mookie Betts at 12/$365M, and Mike Trout at 10/$360M). As Passan rightly says, if Soto stays healthy and productive over the next three years, a $500 million free agent contract is not only not far-fetched, I would almost call it a lock (again, in a world where he’s healthy and productive).
It’s hard to describe just how good Juan Soto has been in his young career, because I feel like the career slash line (and 156 wRC+) doesn’t do it justice, especially given his age. I routinely see his name in tweets like, “The first player to do X since Ted Williams … ” and it just blows my mind that we get to watch this guy play.
And, if he keeps turning down extensions, maybe in three years we can irrationally dream about the Cubs giving him half a billy …