We are so lucky to witness Juan Soto¡¯s career. His new contract with the Mets is historic for a whole host of reasons, and leads to so many fun notes.

Soto is a four-time All-Star and just turned 26. On Opening Day, he¡¯ll play for his fourth MLB team. Soto would be the first player to make at least four All-Star teams and play for four teams all before turning 27, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Let¡¯s dive into more of the context. Here are 13 stats and facts about Soto¡¯s new contract and what makes him so great.

The contract
1. We have to start with the terms. At 15 years and $765 million, this is the largest contract in North American professional sports. The prior largest baseball contract by total value had been Shohei Ohtani¡¯s 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers entering 2024. Before the last two years, it had been Mike Trout¡¯s 12-year, $426.5 million extension with the Angels in 2019.

2. At 15 years, this is the longest contract in MLB history, breaking a mark set when Fernando Tatis Jr. signed a 14-year extension with the Padres in 2021. The prior longest free-agent contract was Bryce Harper¡¯s 13 years with the Phillies entering 2019.

Meet the Mets
3. Soto is no stranger to Citi Field, having started his career with the Nationals and winning the Wild Card Series in 2022 there with the Padres. The longest home run of his career came at Citi Field on Aug. 12, 2020, traveling 466 feet. That, along with his 463-foot home run two days earlier, are the fourth- and fifth-longest home runs at Citi Field under Statcast (since 2015).

4. He hit a career-high 41 home runs last season for the Yankees. No player has had a 40-HR season for both the Yankees and Mets. In fact, the only players with 40+ home runs in their careers for each of the franchises are Darryl Strawberry, Carlos Beltran and Curtis Granderson.

5. Soto is 26, as noted above, and hasn¡¯t just played for three teams already ¨C he has made the postseason with all of them. He was already the youngest player to reach the postseason with a third team. Now, he will aim to do so with a fourth team. Only one player has appeared in a postseason game for a fourth team before the age of 30: 29-year-old Delmon Young for the Orioles in 2014. Soto will get three chances to shatter that record.

6. He hasn¡¯t just made the postseason with those three teams, he¡¯s homered for each in the playoffs as well. The record for most different teams to hit a postseason home run for is four, held by Russell Martin, J.D. Martinez, Mike Napoli, Nelson Cruz, John Olerud, Reggie Sanders and Ron Gant. Of course, this is Juan Soto, so he doesn¡¯t just have one home run for each team, he has at least two. He is one of nine players with multiple postseason home runs with three different teams. Nobody has done so for four teams yet.

7. The slugger has made the All-Star Game in three straight seasons with three different teams, one of 10 players to do so, per Elias. No player has made it in four straight seasons with four different teams yet. No player has even made an All-Star Game for a fourth team, regardless of consecutive, before turning 31. Again, he¡¯s 26.

8. We¡¯ll give him a few days to get settled before projecting how many metrics he could end up being the franchise leader in, but we have to talk about his specialty: walks. Soto has 769 walks in 936 games, spanning the first seven years of his career. The Mets¡¯ franchise record in walks is 762 by David Wright in 1,585 games over the course of 14 years.

The Great Juan
9. There are so many ways to show how Soto¡¯s career so far earned him this contract. In 2024, he hit 41 homers and had 129 walks. It was his fourth season with at least 25 home runs and 125 walks. That¡¯s fourth-most in MLB history, behind only?Barry Bonds (10 such seasons), Babe Ruth (10) and Ted Williams (eight). He and Williams (five) are the only players with more than two such seasons within their first seven years in MLB.

10. His 2020 season is worth factoring in, too. In the 60-game season, Soto played 47 games, slashing .351/.490/.695 with 13 homers and 41 walks. If we prorate that over 150 games, Soto¡¯s fewest in any 162-game season aside from his callup year, that¡¯s 41 home runs and 130 walks. In other words, almost exactly his 2024 production. We¡¯ll never know what could have been, but that might have put his total 25-125 seasons at five already.

11. Soto has 201 career home runs, tied with Albert Pujols for sixth-most before turning 26, behind only Jimmie Foxx (222 HR), Eddie Mathews (222), Alex Rodriguez (216), Mel Ott (211) and Mickey Mantle (207). And again, if 2020 had been a full season? The aforementioned prorated numbers would mean 28 more home runs, putting him atop the list. He also has 23 career multi-homer games, second-most before turning 26 behind Ott¡¯s 24.

12. He¡¯s had at least a .400 on-base percentage in each of his first seven seasons of his career. That streak is tied with Ferris Fain for the fourth-longest streak to start a career among AL/NL players in the live-ball era (1920). He¡¯s chasing Ted Williams (first 17 seasons), Frank Thomas (eight) and Wade Boggs (eight).

13. As noted above, Soto has 769 career walks. That¡¯s the second-most by a player before turning 27, behind Mickey Mantle¡¯s 797. In other words, he¡¯s 29 walks from breaking the pre-27 record, and he¡¯s yet to even play a regular-season game as a 26-year-old.