Juan Soto for 765 million dollars?! Scott Boras’s 10 Richest MLB Deals

Scott Boras is back.

One winter after being notoriously slow to play with his top clients on the free agent market, Boras reportedly secured the richest deal in MLB history: Juan Soto’s 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets.

This was far from the first nine-figure contract Boras negotiated in his career. In fact, it’s not even the first time he’s negotiated this offseason. The super agent helped negotiate a five-year, $182 million deal between Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers two weeks ago.

Some more of Boras’ clients will soon be signing nine-figure players, as he represents Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso. He also helped Yusei Kikuchi, Matthew Boyd and Tyler O’Neill land big deals and is expected to do the same for Sean Manaea and Ha-Seong Kim.

Needless to say, Boras has helped many players become rich during his more than four decades as an agent. It was 24 years ago that Boras negotiated the original blockbuster deal: Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. A-Rod’s subsequent extension was even larger and remained the highest in the sport until 2015. But before Sunday, none of Boras’ contracts ranked among the top seven in baseball history.

That being said, here are the 10 biggest contracts Boras has negotiated (year 1 of each deal in brackets).

[RELATED: Ten biggest contracts in MLB history: Juan Soto’s $765 million with Mets tops list]

1. Juan Soto: 15 years, $765 million, New York Mets (2025)

Once again, Boras can claim to have negotiated the richest contract in baseball history. Soto’s 15-year, $765 million contract breaks the 10-year, $700 million contract Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers last offseason, which was also the richest in North American sports history.

For much of the offseason, Soto was expected to earn at least $600 million. However, offers appeared to explode in the final days of negotiations. With each passing day, new reports emerged about how much money each team was offering, and four of the five finalists are believed to have offered Soto a deal worth at least $700 million.

The contract also gives Boras and Soto some vindication over their decision to reject a 15-year, $440 million extension offer from the Washington Nationals in 2022. That decision led the Nationals to trade him to the San Diego Padres, who Then they traded him. to the New York Yankees for the 2024 season.

While Boras has negotiated several rich contracts over the years, he had actually fallen on the list of the richest contracts ever negotiated in MLB history.

Now, Boras holds the record again and it looks like this record won’t be broken for some time.

2. Bryce Harper: 13 years, $330 million, Philadelphia Phillies (2020)

For a few weeks in March 2019, Boras again negotiated the richest contract in MLB history when he helped the Philadelphia Phillies land Harper. At the time, Harper had a similar pedigree to Soto. At 26 years old, Harper was already a bona fide star, winning the Most Valuable Player a few seasons earlier with the Nationals and a perennial All-Star.

However, unlike Soto, Harper’s free agency process was a bit more laborious. Talks between his camp and teams seemingly stalled for months, as it was rumored that at one point he could agree to a one-year deal only to become a free agent again a season later. Finally, the Phillies stepped up and gave Harper a deal in the middle of spring training. The contract has certainly paid off for Philadelphia as well, with Harper being the focal point of its renaissance in recent seasons after being inactive for much of the 2010s.

As for the contract record, it was broken just weeks after Harper’s deal when Mike Trout signed a 12-year, $426 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels.

3. Corey Seager: 10 years, $325 million, Texas Rangers (2022)

Just before the MLB went into lockout after the 2021 season, Boras was able to reach another $300 million deal. He helped Seager, then 27, secure a contract that was the richest in Rangers history. Just three years after Seager won World Series MVP with the Dodgers, he did the same with the Rangers, which likely made the deal worth it for Texas.

4. Gerrit Cole: 9 years, $324 million, New York Yankees (2020)

Immediately following the Houston Astros’ Game 7 loss to the Nationals in the 2019 World Series, Cole pledged his loyalty to Boras by wearing a Boras Corp. cap when speaking to reporters. Boras returned the favor, helping Cole earn the first $300 million contract for a pitcher in MLB history, and with the team he rooted for growing up. At the time, the contract was also the largest ever in terms of average annual value ($36 million). Yoshinobu Yamamoto ended up breaking Cole’s record for the largest contract for a pitcher last offseason by $1 million, receiving a 12-year, $325 million contract to join the Dodgers.

Cole has fulfilled the contract during his first five seasons in New York. He was a Cy Young candidate in each of the first three seasons before winning his first Cy Young in 2023. After missing more than two months of the 2024 campaign, he helped the Yankees reach their first World Series in 15 years in last October.

5. Xander Bogaerts: 11 years, $280 million, San Diego Padres (2023)

Boras saw a Padres team that was ready to spend after its 2022 NLCS run and pounced. It helped Bogaerts, then 30, receive a contract that shocked the baseball world considering the shortstop’s age and the fact that he was not seen as a transcendent talent.

Up to this point, the contract has been a huge failure for the Padres. Bogaerts has had two of his worst years at the plate since joining San Diego before the 2023 season, including a .264 average with 11 home runs and a .688 OPS in 2024.

6. Alex Rodríguez: 10 years, $275 million, New York Yankees (2008)

Boras helped Rodriguez receive a record contract twice. The 10-year, $275 million pact was signed in 2007 after Rodriguez decided to opt out of his previous deal, controversially making the announcement during the Boston Red Sox’s victory over the Colorado Rockies that year that clinched the World Series. . Rodriguez was also criticized for not informing the Yankees that he was considering retiring early.

The two sides reached an agreement in November 2007, reaching an agreement that kept Rodriguez in the Bronx until the end of his career and once again gave him the largest contract in MLB history. Two years later, Rodríguez played a starring role as the Yankees won what remains their last World Series title.

7. Álex Rodríguez: 10 years, $252 million, Texas Rangers (2000)

Seven years before signing his record extension, Rodríguez signed his first mega deal with the help of Boras. Surprisingly, the Rangers swooped in and gave Rodriguez a contract that was the largest in MLB history at the time, confident that the then-25-year-old shortstop would continue his initial journey as one of the greatest players of all time. time.

Rodriguez did his part, winning three MVP awards over the course of seven seasons in the deal. But the Rangers failed to reach the postseason in each of his first three seasons before making A-Rod available in a trade. The Red Sox had a deal to acquire Rodriguez, but the trade fell through when the MLBPA rejected the team’s and the player’s efforts to renegotiate his contract (he was going to take a pay cut). Instead, Rodríguez was traded to the Yankees in February 2004.

8. Antonio Rendon: 7 years, $245 million, Los Angeles Angels (2020)

Boras negotiated two massive deals for Nationals players in the months following their 2019 World Series victory, and each ended up among the worst contracts in recent years.

Rendon’s has arguably been more notable, as the Angels gave the then-29-year-old a $245 million deal to try to strengthen their lineup around Trout and a young Ohtani.

However, Rendon’s tenure in Southern California has been plagued by injuries and disappointing play. He has appeared in just 257 games since joining the Angels and has produced much worse than the MVP candidate he was in Washington: .242/.348/.369, 22 home runs, 100 OPS+. Worse yet, Rendón still has two seasons left on his contract.

9. Stephen Strasbourg: 7 years, $245 million, Washington Nationals (2020)

Strasburg was 31 years old and had just won the World Series MVP when the Nationals rewarded him with the richest contract ever given to a pitcher. He also received unique perks, such as the team allowing Nationals Park to remain open daily during the offseason so he could work out at the facility.

Unfortunately for both sides, Strasburg’s injuries quickly became too much for him. He dealt with a nerve issue that affected his final seasons, limiting him to eight starts between 2020 and 2022. He then missed the entire 2023 season and retired before the start of the 2024 campaign.

10. Robinson Canó: 10 years, $240 million, Seattle Mariners (2014)

Soto isn’t the first superstar Boras helped bring out of the Bronx. Canó was 31 years old and a perennial MVP candidate when he hit free agency. The Yankees were supposed to retain local talent, but instead he signed a massive deal with the Mariners.

Canó still played at an All-Star level during his first few seasons in Seattle, but he didn’t come close to living up to the deal and was traded to the Mets five years after leaving New York.

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