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How does Juan Soto's $765 million contract compare to the richest contracts in NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB?

Juan Soto's new contract is the richest known deal in the history of sports

liz roscher
Staff writer
·3 min read

Juan Soto just got paid. He reportedly agreed Sunday with the New York Mets on a 15-year, $765 million deal, according to multiple sources.

Soto's contract is the richest known deal in the history of sports. How does it compare to the largest deals in the NFL, NBA, NHL and the rest of MLB? Let's take a look.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed the richest contract in NFL history in 2020, blowing away pretty much every other "huge" contract in the NFL. At the time, he and the Chiefs (along with head coach Andy Reid) had just won their first Super Bowl together after making the team's first appearance in 50 years. Since then, Mahomes has helped lead the Chiefs to three more Super Bowls, winning the past two.

Mahomes' contract is the largest in total value, but Prescott's four-year, $240 million deal with the Dallas Cowboys deserves a mention. It's less than one-third the size of Soto's deal in both years and money, but it makes Prescott the highest paid player in NFL history for those four years, as he's making $60 million per year, or about $15 million more than what Mahomes makes per year. It's not the richest deal in total, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones crammed a lot of money into just a handful of years to keep Prescott in Dallas. Prescott's deal does beat Soto's contract in annual value (Soto will make $51 million per year), which is why it gets a spot on this list.

When news of Shohei Ohtani's contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers was reported on Dec. 9, 2023, he broke the record for largest deal in MLB history in both total value and average annual value. The record had, until then, belonged to his former teammate Mike Trout, who signed a 12-year, $426.5 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels several years earlier. While Ohtani will likely own the MLB record for AAV for years to come, Soto surpassed him in both years and total value. That said, because of deferrals, MLB calculates Ohtani's deal, when adjusted for inflation, to be worth approximately $460 million for luxury tax purposes. Soto's deal reportedly contains no deferrals.

Jaylen Brown's five-year, $303 million contract was in this spot until summer 2024, when the Boston Celtics signed Brown's teammate Jayson Tatum to a five-year, $314 million deal. You won't find contracts longer than five years in the NBA, but the annual value of those five-year deals can reach MLB proportions. The annual value of Tatum's deal surpasses Soto's, but Soto still has the advantage in total value.

Every other contract on this list is either in process or about to be started. But Alex Ovechkin's contract has already ended. He signed his massive deal with the Washington Capitals in 2008, and it remains the largest in NHL history. Ovechkin has stayed with the Capitals since the conclusion of his contract in 2020, signing a series of shorter deals to keep him with the only NHL team he has ever played for.