There is finally a winner in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, and it’s the team by former Milwaukee Brewers general manager David Stearns. On Sunday, Soto reportedly agreed to an eye-popping $765 million deal with the New York Mets, with Stearns helping run the show from behind the desk as the team’s president of baseball operations.
The massive contract that Soto landed with the Mets has also garnered Stearns some attention, particularly from the Brewers world. Unlike his time with Milwaukee, Stearns is left to operate on a massive budget, hence the offseason splurge by the Mets in the offseason.
To further illustrate that point, here’s an interesting fact raised by David Gasper of Reviewing the Brew:
“David Stearns just spent more money on Juan Soto ($765MM) than he spent on the entire Brewers payrolls combined over his 7 seasons in Milwaukee (~$610MM).”
Gasper also added in a follow-up post on X: “FWIW, the 2020 payroll number was cut by two-thirds. If you use what the CB Tax number was, so basically more like what the payroll was *supposed* to be, the payroll total would be up to ~$691MM, which is still well short of Soto’s contract.”
Here are some reactions from fans to that information:
“Easy to see why he went to New York, when your owner runs a hedge fund and uses his earnings on his fun lil baseball team…no brainer”
“Major market /smallest market. It’d be fun to see MLB run like the NFL payroll wise.”
“That’s honestly insane. And the Brewers were very good a majority of those seasons.”
“Right. And he’s just getting started. So fun to play GM with someone else’s $$. But even the 750 over 15 is a pittance to Steve”
“Two drastic different owners”
Milwaukee Brewers’ 2024 MLB postseason tormentors win Juan Soto sweepstakes
In any case, the Mets, who eliminated the Brewers in the 2024 National League League Wild-Card round, can be called a big offseason winner just by their acquisition of Soto, who hit .288/.419/.569 in 2024 with the New York Yankees.
As for the Brewers, they still have plenty of time left to make roster additions, though likely not as big as what the Mets just pulled off.
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