David Stearns reveals factors that led to historic Juan Soto Mets contract

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns discussed the decision to give Juan Soto the largest contract in professional sports history.

Dec 12, 2024; Flushing, NY, USA; New York Mets general manager David Stearns puts a jersey on new right fielder Juan Soto during Soto's introductory press conference at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

On December 8, it was announced that perennial MVP contender Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 contract with the New York Mets. This is the largest contract in professional sports history.

BREAKING: Superstar outfielder Juan Soto and the New York Mets are in agreement on a 15-year, $765 million contract, sources tell ESPN. It is the largest deal in professional sports history.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 9, 2024

While Mets fans have been rejoicing over this massive signing (and rightfully so), some within the baseball world feel that this is a preposterous amount of money to spend on a single player, regardless of who that player is.

The man who ultimately made Soto this offer is Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns. And during his February 11 appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out show, Stearns spoke about what went into him making Soto this historic offer.

"Players very rarely get to free agency at such a young age, so Juan is going to play at 26 this year," Stearns said. "Most players get to free agency as they're approaching 30. And so players are generally open for competitive bidding at a point in which they may already have peaked as a performer.

"We have a player who's had as good a start to his major league career as arguably any hitter in the history of baseball, becomes freely available for competitive bidding as he's entering his peak years, and has proven that he performs at an extraordinarily high level on the biggest stages," Stearns continued.

"This is a player who has played in multiple World Series, won a World Series, [and] performed well in our market, which isn't always a given. And so you add all these things up, and we knew this was going to break all sorts of records," he added.

"It's tough to foresee another identically situated free agency emerging in the next, let's say, 7-10 years. And so you had one shot at this type of investment. And we put our best foot forward and fortunately, we got it."

Stearns later said, "Regardless of how deep an organization's pockets are, you can't do multiple of these. In terms of these generational types of contracts, you probably have one shot to shoot. And we felt that this was the right person to take that shot."

New York Mets president David Stearns on giving Juan Soto the biggest contract in sports history:

"Regardless of how deep an organization's pockets are, you can't do multiple of these. In terms of these generational types of contracts, you probably have one shot to shoot." pic.twitter.com/ODqCpfwnf7

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) February 11, 2025

Time will tell whether the Mets taking this historic shot on Soto will pay off.

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