2:35 p.m. ET
Jeff Passan ESPN
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- ESPN MLB insider
Author of The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports
Outfielder Juan Soto and the San Diego Padres on Friday agreed to a one-year, $23 million deal to avoid arbitration, sources told ESPN in what is expected to be the richest deal in a day that saw hundreds of players bid theirs Set salaries for 2023 season.
The arbitration process allows players with more than three years of service in the major leagues to negotiate their salaries with teams for the upcoming season. In cases where the sides can’t agree on an agreement by Friday’s deadline, they exchange numbers, which they then take to an arbitration hearing, where a panel of three hears a case and chooses a side.
Soto, 24, is in his third year as an arbitrator, having been one of a handful of so-called Super 2s – players who qualify after more than two seasons in the major leagues – and previously $8.5 million and The system earned 17.1 million US dollars. With another turn-through arbitration, Soto has a good chance of overtaking Shohei Ohtani, who agreed to a $30 million deal this winter, for the highest-ever salary for an eligible player.
Ohtani, 28, will reach a free hand after the 2023 season and could demand the first $500 million deal in baseball history. Soto, who turned down a 14-year, $440 million contract from the Washington Nationals before they traded him to San Diego before the July deadline, may gain a free hand after the 2024 season and could find himself in find themselves in the same financial neighborhood.
Among those who raked in big paydays as deals closed late morning and early afternoon on Friday:
While players who don’t reach an agreement by Friday often come to hearings in February, they can negotiate with the teams and come to an agreement beforehand. The Seattle Mariners announced they had not made deals with three players, including hitter Teoscar Hernandez, who they acquired in a trade this winter.