We in the baseball world have just witnessed the largest signing ever by a baseball player: Juan Soto‘s epic contract far surpassed Shohei Ohtani‘s deal with the Dodgers last year by a vast sum. The signing seemed to slip under the radar though as the real significance to this hasn’t been realized yet.

A baseball player almost signing a billion-dollar deal to play the game, has taken the game to unheard-of areas in the sense of owners spending money on these huge deals and putting all of the eggs in a certain basket. Sure, it’s great for the player, and he’s gonna be set financially for the rest of his playing career, however a sudden injury or a downturn in production by Soto in this instance can lead to extra scrutiny by the press and fans in their expectations of what should be expected from a player who signs this type of mega-deal.

The Phillies were said to be players in the Juan Soto sweepstakes but at the price that Steve Cohen paid to make Juan Soto a New York Met, was a statistically sound judgment made by him, or was it just a whim of an owner who desperately wants to bring a championship to the Gotham city? John Middleton, Phillies owner pictured above, did not want to empty his pockets to the extent of Cohen’s seemingly never-ending thirst for an NL East Championship or a World Series appearance.
Will the synergistic chemistry of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge translate over to a successful duo with Mets superstar Francisco Lindor, and will the Mets be able to still sign All-Star slugger and first baseman, Pete Alonso? This would put nearly a billion-dollar expenditure on salaries with just two players this offseason by the Mets.

The Phillies meanwhile still have a great stable of experienced multi-talented players that should be able to compete with whatever the Mets throw at them this upcoming season. The Phils have the swagger and bragging rights of owning the NL East Pennant last year with what seemed to be quite an easy win for them to accomplish upon building up to that great first half of the season that they did.
Getting back to what some feel is an absurd amount for a baseball player’s salary, is this good or bad for the game? The ripple effect across higher salaries like these is that it raises the salary bar across the board for other players, thus in effect almost making an artificial inflation to the game, can some of the smaller market teams still compete with signings like this?

Players like Bryce Harper who signed an epic deal with the Phillies just a few years ago now, seemed to step out of his basement in seeking a revised deal with Phils owner, John Middleton upon Shohei Ohtani’s groundbreaking deal last year, will Soto’s signing even more press Harper to seek an additional add on to his already signed deal? The extension of the contract he seemed to be seeking publically early on in the year seemed to take a back seat after the season had begun. So that issue remains for the Phils top management to discuss and come up with either a solution or just let his contract play out despite him being one of the top 5 players in the game.
An interesting offseason continues with the Boston Red Sox acquisition of Garret Crochet, who was rumored to be an object of affection by the Phils. Had the Phillies been able to obtain Crochet, they may have had just to look into their rearview mirror at the rest of NL East.