Mo’ money, mo’ problems

I promise I didn’t set out to name two columns in a row after popular classic rap songs, but that’s just how things worked out. I couldn’t think of a better name for this column — it’s just fitting. Notorious B.I.G., the rapper responsible for that song, was as New York as they come, and since this is about someone who just signed the biggest contract in sports history to go from the N.Y. Yankees to the… N.Y. Mets, well, you can see the rationale there.

Early last week, news broke that Juan Soto inked a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Metropolitans — the cross-town I wish there was a typo somewhere in there — preferably even multiple. Did someone forget a couple periods? Was that supposed to be 1.5 years for $7.65 million? Or, maybe they just got a digit wrong. Surely a 10-year, $76.5 million deal is more like it?

The answer to all of those is a simple ‘no’. Fifteen years. Good through 2039. $765 million. Just $235 million short of one billion dollars. How is this even feasible? What does this do for the rest of the MLB and pro sports as a whole?

To put this in perspective, the two greatest basketball players of all time, LeBron James and Michael Jordan (James listed first, of course, because he is the better of the two, despite what your North Carolina bias will tell you) combined for career earnings of $622.6 million (speaking, of course, just for their basketball contracts, not including any sponsorships or other deals).

In 2010, the Golden State Warriors — in the era shortly before Steph Curry and Klay Thompson took over as the ‘Splash Brothers’ — were auctioned off for $450 million. The NHL team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes, now known as the Utah Hockey Club, was reported as being the lowest-valued team in American professional sports at $675 million, but we know that valuation was off by a sizeable chunk, as the team was “purchased” this year for $1 billion. Soto could buy either of those teams at those projected valuations with his new deal.

I thought things were bad when Shohei Ohtani landed his massive 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers a year ago. I didn’t know it would get worse, although I should have. A dangerous precedent has been set across all sports, and it’s not going to get better any time soon.

I don’t want this to come off as me not wanting these players to be paid. They deserve to earn a wealthy sum of money for their talents, especially with how valuable the business of sports is. Insert whatever statistic you may find about what percentage of athletes make it to the professional ranks, and you’ll see the justification. I’m even in favor of the NIL in college and now high school athletics. It’s not the fact that they’re being paid a handsome sum of money that’s an issue; it’s just how wildly out of control that has become.

The first contract to be worth $1 million in professional sports came in 1972, when Bobby Hull signed with the Winnipeg Jets. Surely that was just his signing bonus, right? Wrong. That was the total value over the entire 10 years of the contract — just $100,000 a season. Soto will be making 510 times that per season with his new deal.

Let’s break down this nearly-billion dollar endeavor for the new king of Queens. In a standard 162-game MLB season, Soto would be paid $314,814.81 per game if he appeared in all of them — 3.14 times Hull’s yearly earnings in just one outing. If he was right on the money (pun intended) with the average number of at-bats in a game, which is 4.2, he would earn nearly $75,ooo per plate appearance.

But, according to my research, the average number of yearly at-bats for a professional baseball player was 121 in 2022. Using that data, combined with my own math skills, means that Soto would be earning roughly $418,032.79 every time he steps to the plate. Whether he channels his inner-Kevin Youkilis and fouls off 90 fastballs in a row, or he is served three straight strikes without the bat leaving his shoulder — he is making that ludacris money.

I’ll break it down in a different way for you. The 2025 baseball season is going to start around March 27. The World Series will end somewhere around Oct. 30. For all intents and purposes, imagine that Soto plays in every single game in that span, including all 162 games of the regular season, and the Mets play a full 19 games in the postseason. That would be 181 games in roughly 217 days. Just his base salary alone — no bonuses, no merchandise deals — would pay him $235,023.04 a day, or $9,792.63 an hour. Even further, that’s $163.21 a minute.

If, at some point during next season, Juan Soto finds himself strolling down the sidewalk in New York City, and comes across a $100 bill on the ground, he would be wise to pick it up and pocket it within 38 seconds, otherwise it’s not worth his time to contemplate the decision.

I can break down those numbers however you want, but I think my point has already been made here: Juan Soto is going to make a lot of money. And he’s not the only Met to have a bizarre contract — Bobby Bonilla, who hasn’t played for them since 1999 receives a $1.2 million paycheck on July 1 every year from 2011 through 2035 — just four years before Soto’s.

This isn’t just a baseball thing, either. Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Jordan Love, Tua Tagovailoa and Jared Goff all have contracts that are worth more yearly than Soto’s is. Jalen Hurts’ contract earns him the same money on a yearly basis. And football has a salary cap, while baseball doesn’t — those contracts cost their teams more in terms of ability to add talent around them.

So, why are we in an arms-race towards the first billion-dollar athletic contract? Well, it’s obvious, because a majority of people like money. But in a time where sports are far more about cohesive team units — take for example, the fact that passing yardages across the NFL are down as a whole this season as an anecdote of needing more than just a gunslinging QB — why would you devote so much capital to one player? When will professional sports leagues, which are a business after all, stop prioritizing the glitz and glamour of one singular person?