Juan Soto is getting paid too much

Was the Juan Soto Signing really worth it?

Photo from ESPN

Juan Soto recently signed a 15-year 765 million dollar contract with the Mets, the largest contract in sports history, smashing the record set by Shohei Ohtani before the 2024 season. Ohtain’s making 700 million for 10 years, 70 million for 1 year. Soto is making about 51 million per year. By the end of his contract though, he will have made much more than Ohtani. Is Juan Soto really worth more than Ohtani though? Let’s rank his hitting, fielding, and baserunning to find out.

Hitting: Outstanding

Photo from the New York Post

Soto’s one of the best hitters in all of baseball. He’s all-around great at hitting. Need power? Soto hit 41 home runs in 2024 and hit 200 home runs before he turned 26. Need more runs? He had 109 RBI’s and 128 runs in 2024. Need more people getting on base? He has a career .421 OBP with a .285 average. I think you can probably now understand how good of a hitter Soto is.

Fielding: Mid

Photo from NBC sports bay area and California

As you see in the image above, no one can say Soto can get to the ball when he fields as well as he can get to the ball when he hits. Although he doesn’t make a ton of errors, that’s also mainly because he plays in right field where the ball isn’t hit as much. He also can never make crazy plays like all the other Mets outfielders, such as Tyrone Taylor, Brandon Nimmo, and probably the best fielding outfielder, Jose Siri.

Baserunning:  Mid

Photo from Trentonian

Soto isn’t a good runner. He had seven steals in 2024. That was only 4 more steals than PETE ALONSO, possibly the slowest player on the Mets last year. He also had 4 triples, but that was mainly because of all his power. Overall, not great baserunning.

In conclusion, I don’t think that Juan Soto deserves as much as he is getting paid. Sure he can hit, but he obviously isn’t as good as a fielder or a runner as he is a hitter. I think the Mets should have signed Jesse Winker, who’d have the same fielding, and a bit better baserunning, but worse hitting. Winker also had a pretty good OBP. Oh, and he’s also probably 10% of the cost of Juan Soto. So I don’t think Juan Soto is worth it. I hope I get proven wrong so he can do well though. I think the Mets might be able to make him a 5 tool player rather than an outstanding one-tool and mid 4 tool.