Scott Boras is back.
In a winter when the free agent market was notoriously slow to play with top clients, Boras secured the richest contract in MLB history, a 15-year, $765 million contract with Juan Soto and the New York Mets. It has been reported.
This was a far cry from the first nine-figure contract Boras had negotiated in his career. In fact, this isn’t the first time he’s negotiated this offseason. Two weeks ago, the super agent helped negotiate a five-year, $182 million contract between Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Boras has several more clients and will soon sign nine-figure players on behalf of Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso. He also helped Yusei Kikuchi, Matthew Boyd and Tyler O’Neal earn big contracts, and is expected to do the same for Sean Manaea and Ha Sung Kim.
Needless to say, Boras has helped many players get rich over his 40-plus years as an agent. It was 24 years ago that Boras brokered his first blockbuster deal, Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers. A-Rod’s subsequent contract extension was even bigger and remained the best in the sport until 2015. But before Sunday, none of Boras’ contracts ranked in the top seven in baseball history.
So here are the 10 biggest contracts Boras has negotiated (with the first year of each contract in parentheses).
1. Juan Soto: 15 years, $765 million, New York Mets (2025)
Boras can once again claim to have negotiated the richest contract in baseball history. Soto’s 15-year, $765 million contract cancels the 10-year, $765 million contract Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers last offseason, which was also the richest contract in North American sports history. .
For much of the offseason, Soto was expected to earn at least $600 million. However, on the final day of negotiations, offers seemed to explode. With each passing day, new reports surface about the amount each team was offering, with four of the five finalists believed to have offered Soto a contract worth at least $700 million.
The deal also lends some legitimacy to Boras and Soto’s decision to turn down a 15-year, $440 million contract extension offer from the Washington Nationals in 2022. This decision led to the Nationals trading him to the San Diego Padres, where he was later traded to the San Diego Padres. Joined the New York Yankees for the 2024 season.
Boras has negotiated some big contracts over the years, but he actually fell down the list of the richest contracts in MLB history.
Well, Boras has set a record again, and it looks like it won’t be broken any time soon.
2. bryce harper: 13 years, $330 million, Philadelphia Phillies (2020)
For several weeks in March 2019, Boras helped the Philadelphia Phillies acquire Harper, once again negotiating the richest contract in MLB history. At the time, Harper had a similar pedigree to Soto. By the age of 26, Harper was already a bonafide star, winning MVP with the Nationals a few seasons ago and going on to be an All-Star.
However, unlike Soto, Harper’s free agency process was a little more involved. Negotiations between the camp and the team have been stalled for months, as it was rumored at one point that he could sign a one-year contract and become a free agent again after the season. Eventually, the Phillies stepped up and gave Harper a contract midway through spring training. The deal has certainly paid off for Philadelphia, with Harper being the centerpiece of a resurgence in recent seasons after being inactive for much of the 2010s.
As for the contract record, it was broken when Mike Trout signed a 12-year, $426 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels just weeks after signing Harper.
After several months of free agency, Scott Boras helped Bryce Harper sign what was then the richest contract in MLB history. (Photo by Mike Carlson/MLB via Getty Images)
3. corey seeger: 10 years, $325 million, Texas Rangers (2022)
Just before MLB went into a lockout after the 2021 season, Boras was able to sign another $300 million contract. He helped Seager, then 27, earn the richest contract in Rangers history. Just three years after Seager won World Series MVP with the Dodgers, he had a similar performance with the Rangers, likely making the deal valuable for the Texans.
4. gerrit cole:9 years, $324 million, New York Yankees (2020)
Immediately after the Houston Astros lost Game 7 to the Nationals in the 2019 World Series, Cole pledged allegiance to Boras by wearing a Boras Corporation cap while speaking to reporters. Boras returned the favor, helping Cole become the first pitcher in MLB history to earn a $300 million contract, and helping Cole grow with the team he rooted for. At the time, this contract was also the largest in history in terms of average annual value ($36 million). Yoshinobu Yamamoto joined the Dodgers last offseason with a 12-year contract worth $325 million, breaking Cole’s record for the highest contract in pitcher history by $1 million.
Cole lived up to his contract through his first five seasons in New York. He was a Cy Young Award candidate in each of his first three seasons before winning his first Cy Young Award in 2023. After missing more than two months of the 2024 season, he helped the Yankees reach the World Series for the first time in 15 years in October of this year.
Gerrit Cole signed the largest contract in pitcher history in December 2019 with help from Scott Boras. (Photo by Mike Stove/Getty Images)
5. Xander Bogaerts: 11 years, $280 million, San Diego Padres (2023)
Coach Boras jumped at the chance to see a Padres team ready for a 2022 NLCS appearance. He helped Bogaerts, then 30, earn a contract that shocked the baseball world considering the shortstop’s age and the fact that he was not considered a transcendent talent.
At this point, the deal was a huge mistake for the Padres. Bogaerts has had his worst two years at the plate since joining San Diego for the 2023 season, hitting .264 with 11 home runs and a .688 OPS in 2024.
6. Alex Rodriguez: 10 years, $275 million, New York Yankees (2008)
Boras twice helped Rodriguez earn record contracts. The 10-year, $275 million deal was controversially announced during the Boston Red Sox’s victory over the Colorado Rockies in that year’s World Series, with Rodriguez opting out of his previous contract. After deciding, it was signed in 2007. Rodriguez was also criticized for not telling the Yankees in advance that he was considering resigning.
The two sides settled by November 2007, agreeing to a deal that kept Rodriguez in the Bronx until the end of his career and gave him once again the largest contract in MLB history. Two years later, Rodriguez played a starring role in the Yankees winning their last World Series title.
7. Alex Rodriguez: 10 years, $252 million, Texas Rangers (2000)
Seven years before signing his record-breaking contract extension, Rodriguez signed his first major contract with help from Boras. Surprisingly, the Rangers swooped in on Rodriguez and signed him to what was then the largest contract in MLB history, hoping that the then 25-year-old shortstop would continue his early strides as one of the greatest players of all time.
Rodriguez played that role, winning three MVP awards over the seven seasons he was under contract. However, the Rangers failed to make the postseason in each of their first three seasons before acquiring A-Rod in the trade. The Red Sox had a deal in place to acquire Rodriguez, but the trade fell through when the MLBPA refused to allow the team to renegotiate the player’s contract (he would have received a pay cut). Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees in February 2004.
Alex Rodriguez signed the richest contract in MLB history when he joined the Rangers in 2000. (Gary Barber/ALLSPORT)
8. Anthony Rendon: 7 years, $245 million, Los Angeles Angels (2020)
Boras negotiated two big contracts with Nationals players in the months after the 2019 World Series win, but both ended up being the worst deals in recent years.
Rendon is perhaps more notorious, as the Angels signed the then-29-year-old to a $245 million contract in an effort to strengthen their batting lineup around Trout and the young Ohtani.
However, Rendon’s tenure in Southern California was fraught with injuries and disappointing play. He’s appeared in just 257 games since joining the Angels, and he’s far worse than the MVP candidate he was in Washington: .242/.348/.369, 22 home runs, 100 OPS+. To make matters worse, Rendon still has two seasons left on his contract.
9. stephen strasberg: 7 years, $245 million, Washington Nationals (2020)
Strasburg was 31 years old and had just won the World Series MVP when the Nationals gave him the richest contract in pitcher history. They also received unique perks, such as allowing the team to open Nationals Park every day during the offseason and allow them to train at the facility.
Unfortunately for both sides, Strasburg’s injury quickly became a burden. He dealt with nerve issues that plagued his final season, limiting him to eight starts from 2020-2022. He then sat out the entire 2023 season and retired before the start of the 2024 season.
10. Robinson Cano: 10 years, $240 million, Seattle Mariners (2014)
Soto wasn’t the first superstar Boras brought out of the Bronx. Cano was 31 years old when he became a free agent and was a perennial MVP candidate. The Yankees were expected to keep their raw talent, but instead he signed a big contract with the Mariners.
Cano still played at an All-Star level during his first few seasons in Seattle, but fell short of fulfilling his contract and was traded to the Mets five years after leaving New York.
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