Former Mets GM fails to adjust for inflation with his laughably bad Juan Soto contract offer

Here we are at home wondering who’s going to spoil Thanksgiving dinner this year playing armchair general manager wondering what the New York Mets should do with their roster. Who knows better than the fans? One would think someone who once called the shots with the Mets would have an idea of how to handle things.

Almost unanimously, the desire to sign Juan Soto is front and center on what the Mets should do. The few holdouts have either seen enough dilapidation as fans of this organization to get their hopes up or maybe they appreciate the irresponsibility of spending so much money on one player. Either way, everyone thinks the bare minimum of what Soto will get is $600 million. Well, almost everyone.

Steve Phillips might need to whip out his inflation calculator. The former Mets GM proposed a contract that would have had Soto laughing and Scott Boras hitting every mute button he could find.

Former Mets GM Steve Phillips is lowballing Juan Soto to laughable proportions

If only it cost just $520 million to sign Soto. The $40 million AAV isn’t even the highest in Mets history. It’s only a tad higher than what they’re paying Francisco Lindor. The total proposed by Phillips is probably what some online generator of value would propose. In the free market, it’s going to exceed what he’s hypothetically offering.

The AAV would tie what the New York Yankees are paying Aaron Judge. It falls short of what the Mets gave Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander by a few million. It would be less than what Zack Wheeler is getting per year from the Philadelphia Phillies.

Phillips’ offer is far below expectations. At $40 million per year, he’s the kind of player more than only a handful of teams should be in on.

Phillips has failed to account for inflation in 2025 let alone what the average superstar MLB contract will look like by 2030. We’ll see more players topple $40 million per year. The Shohei Ohtani contract remains an outlier because of his ability to hit and pitch at an elite level. Barring another unicorn coming into the league to do the same, it’ll be a while until someone comes close to getting what the Los Angeles Dodgers gave him.

Shame on any team who would pass up the chance to sign Soto to a deal like the one Phillips proposed in his initial offer. In this hypothetical world, the initial offer is all he’d get a chance to make. A text of “New phone, who dis?” would be headed his way the next time he tried to get in touch with Boras.