Philadelphia Phillies Target Projected to Make Second Largest Deal in MLB History

At this moment, all anyone can do is trust Philadelphia Phillies front office when they say they are willing to spend money in the offseason. Those words were spoken again earlier this week, which is a promising sign for the Phillies as they look to improve their lineup this winter.

Just because they plan to increase their salary doesn’t mean they need to add a guy like Juan Soto. However, after saying they’re already willing to do so, there’s a good chance Philly could be looking at a significant increase in their payroll.

If so, then the latest forecast from Tim Britton from Athletic would be a great option for Phillies fans.

Britton predicted the contracts of the top 40 free agents on the market, including Soto. He named Philadelphia as one of the top options for his services and added that he expects to receive $611 million over 13 seasons.

“This year, Soto combines Ohtani’s versatile offense with Yamamoto’s youth; he’s the first player at a star position to become a free agent in his age-26 season since Bryce Harper and Manny Machado six years ago. In fact, this hasn’t happened since Alex Rodriguez in 2001. that a free agent hit the open market at such a young age and was successful. And it helps that Soto is having the best season of his career and a remarkable postseason that showcases everything he can do in the box. The proposed deals are likely to go ahead. similar to how Ohtani’s deal with Los Angeles was valued in modern dollars at 10 years and approximately $440 million. The question is not whether Soto will reach $500 million, but whether he will increase it to $600 million.”

The more years Soto has on his contract, the better. Either way, the Phillies would have to make a huge financial commitment for his services, but if they could extend his contract for about 15 years, that would be ideal.

It will be interesting to see how the rest plays out, but most contract projections have him getting over $600 million. Some even speculate that for that kind of money, he could expect to last just 10 seasons, essentially beating most Major League Baseball teams.

As for Philadelphia, it’s unclear if this will take them out of the picture.

If they want to address their roster issues related to mistakes and misses during 2024, there are few better forwards to do it than Soto.