Juan Soto

Of all the five major professional sports leagues in the US, Major League Soccer has the highest diversity of foreign-born players representing 79 countries, including of course, the United States.  The NBA comes in second with 45 representations followed by the NFL (29), MLB (23) and NHL (22).

The MLS also tops other pro football leagues European leagues in global representation which includes the English Premier League (69), France’s Ligue 1 (68), Italy’s Serie A (65), Spain’s La Liga (60) and Germany’s Bundesliga (54).  The MLS have two PH men’s national team players in Michael Baldisimo playing for San Jose Earthquakes and Anthony Markanich of Colorado Rapids.

Pro baseball has a total of 949 players spread across 30 teams with 26-man rosters.  Latinos make up 28% of the total number.  The Dominican Republic leads the lot of Latinos followed by Venezuela and Cuba.  Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua make up the rest of the Latino baseballers.

Just recently, one Dominican player had become the world’s highest paid player when the New York Yankees failed to hold on to him and crosstown rival New York Mets wasted no time in offering a 15-year, $765 million deal.

Immediately after Juan Soto shifted allegiance, Yankee fans went on a Soto jersey-burning spree and since we live near the Yankee Stadium and in a Latino community with a predominantly Dominican population, the news did not sit well.  His #22 Yankee jersey which normally sells somewhere between $150 to $220 had gone down to as low as $35.

The in-prime 26-year old Soto is one of the MLB’s best hitters and his deal will give him $51m a year.  Entering the league seven years ago with the Washington Nationals, he’s consistently in the MVP race.   Elite players usually sign max deals in their late 20s or early 30s which often is a big gamble for teams.  Ever heard of LeBron and the LA Lakers with Bronny as a kicker?

Despite the huge investment, the Mets have the luxury of building around their multi-million-dollar talent for years to come and hope to end their almost four decades of title drought.  The Mets last won the World Series in 1986.  On top of the massive deal, Soto received a $75 million signing bonus.

If Soto can maintain his performance and maintain his health, he’s approximated to earn $314,815 per game throughout the duration of his deal.  Converted to our severely devalued peso, that’s roughly P18.2 million a game.

Soto’s deal is bigger than the $700m contract of LA Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani which he signed last year.  In comparison, it’s way below football’s biggest stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who earn $260m and $135m respectively, mostly from commercial endorsements and image rights.  The NBA’s Stephen Curry, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown get upwards of $60m annually from their recently negotiated contracts.