(Bloomberg) -- Steve Cohen has clinched a record-breaking contract for Major League Baseball, signing former Yankees superstar outfielder Juan Soto for $765 million over 15 years for the New York Mets.
The Mets topped the Yankees, who offered Soto $760 million over 16 years to keep him in the Bronx, according to the New York Times. The agreement is still subject to a physical assessment.
The deal for the 26-year old surpasses the total valuation of Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and could reach as much as $805 million.
Including the upcoming 2025 season, it brings the total spent on player salaries by Cohen’s Mets to $1.6 billion, cementing his status as one of sport’s biggest spenders, despite the 2025 payroll potentially being about $100 million less than the previous season.
Cohen, 68, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought the Mets in late 2020 for $2.4 billion, and set about spending heavily on players in a bid for glory.
By the 2023 season, the Mets had an Opening Day payroll of more than $330 million (along with about $100 million in luxury-tax penalties), the highest of any franchise. The team finished 75-87. Since 1990, no other team had spent more as a share of total league payroll and finished with a losing record.
Cohen hit reset, bringing in Milwaukee Brewers executive David Stearns to be the club’s president of baseball operations. They jettisoned expensive, aging players, and although there was a drag on payroll to the 2024 season, it allowed enough room to spend on Soto.
2024 was Cohen’s best year to date with the Mets reaching the National League Championship Series. Cohen regularly stood outside Citi Field greeting fans and posing for photos with kids before they lost to the Dodgers.
The success of the Mets also coincided with a change of role for Cohen at his hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management. In September, Bloomberg reported that Cohen had stepped away from the trading floor and instead was focused on driving the firm’s growth and mentoring and developing talent.
Cohen, with a net worth of $14.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has said he would be disappointed if he didn’t win a World Series within his first five years. He’s got one year left to clinch a title.
Sign up for Bloomberg’s Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders. Delivered weekly.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.