Juan Soto Turned Down $350 Contract Offer From The Nationals Before The Lockout

[pwaldo]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/...e-lockout.html

The Nationals offered superstar outfielder Juan Soto a 13-year, $350MM contract extension before the start of the lockout, reports Enrique Rojas of ESPN (Spanish-language link). Soto confirmed the team made him a long-term offer but tells Rojas he and his agents at the Boras Corporation prefer to proceed year-by-year via arbitration. He remains under club control through 2024, giving him three more seasons before hitting the open market.

According to Rojas, the offer did not contain any deferrals and would have gone into effect for the upcoming season had Soto accepted. The Nats have deferred payments in many of their recent big-ticket signings. Each of Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg, for instance, agreed to push a substantial portion of their earnings beyond the term of the contract. That reduced the present-day value of those deals, but the offer to Soto would not have had the same effect. The specific payout structure of the offer is unclear, but overall, it included an average annual value just south of $27MM through the 2034 campaign.

Some fans will surely bristle at the notion of Soto leaving $350MM on the table. It’s obviously a life-changing sum of money, and it’d have gone down as the third-largest guarantee (before accounting for inflation) in MLB history. However, a deeper look at Soto’s situation makes it unsurprising that wasn’t enough to forego the possibility of an even more lucrative payday down the line.

Soto already has a strong amount of financial security, lessening his incentive to forego future earning power for up-front payments. He reached arbitration early as a Super Two qualifier last offseason, eventually agreeing to an $8.5MM salary for 2021. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him to earn around $16.2MM during his second trip through the process this year. That’s nearly $25MM that Soto has all but already earned.

[bakemeister52]

Wow, wonder what he will get after the lockout?

Bake

[Devlin]

wants to take it year at a time. Not eligible for free agency for a while..

[pwaldo]

Wow, wonder what he will get after the lockout?

Bake

Probably less if there is a strike and the season goes away

[OriolesFan]

If MLB teams are smart, none of them will offer him anything. Turning down that much to get more is just selfish. In fact, in my opinion, $350 million is "OVER PAID".

[HOCIMAN]

Must need more money to buy DR property