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When Juan Soto signed with the Mets in December 2024, the headline was the number: 15 years, $765 million. The largest contract in baseball history. The longest free-agent deal ever. A reset of what’s possible for an elite player at the right age.
But for any MLB player reading the news — especially one staring down their own arbitration year, free agency window, or extension conversation — the more important question isn’t how big. It’s how does this actually pay out, and what does it mean for the next decade of my financial life?
Because here’s the part that doesn’t make the highlight reel: a long-term contract is not a liquidity event. It’s a long, structured stream of paychecks that arrive only during the season, sometimes with massive chunks deferred a decade or more into the future. The bigger and longer the deal, the wider the gap between the headline number and the money you can actually use today.
This piece breaks down what’s driving the trend toward longer MLB contracts, why deferred structures are increasingly common, and — most importantly — what players and their advisors should be thinking about when it comes to building a real cash-flow strategy around a long-term deal.
The Trend: Contracts Are Longer Than Ever
The numbers tell the story clearly. There are now 28 MLB contracts of 10 years or longer in history, a number that has climbed sharply in just the past five offseasons. Recent landmark deals include:
- Juan Soto — 15 years, $765M with the Mets
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — 14 years, $500M extension with the Blue Jays
- Shohei Ohtani — 10 years, $700M with the Dodgers
- Mookie Betts — 12 years, $365M extension with the Dodgers
- Mike Trout — 12 years, $426.5M extension with the Angels
- Bryce Harper — 13 years, $330M with the Phillies
- Fernando Tatis Jr. — 14 years, $340M with the Padres
A few drivers are pushing length up:
Tax structure. MLB’s Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) is calculated on annual average value, not total value. Spreading $500M over 14 years means a lower CBT hit than the same money over 8 years. Teams use length to manage their luxury-tax exposure.
Risk allocation. Long contracts shift risk from the player (who gets guaranteed money far into the future) to the team (which is on the hook even if performance declines). For elite players, especially those signing in their 20s, this is the most player-friendly contract structure ever offered.
Earlier extensions. Teams are increasingly trying to lock up cornerstone players before they hit free agency. Vlad Jr.’s 14-year extension and Tatis Jr.’s 14-year deal — signed before he was even arbitration-eligible — show how aggressively front offices are extending the runway.
The Hidden Variable: Deferred Money
Here’s where things get more complicated. The headline contract value increasingly bears little resemblance to what the player actually receives in any given year.
Ohtani’s $700M deal is the most extreme example. He deferred $680M of the $700M — meaning he is paid just $2M per year from 2024 through 2033, then $68M per year from 2034 through 2043. For Competitive Balance Tax purposes, MLB calculated the present-day value of his contract at roughly $460M, not $700M, applying a 4.43% discount rate to the deferrals.
Soto’s $765M deal, by contrast, was structured with no deferrals — a deliberate choice by his agent Scott Boras, who has publicly pushed back against deferral-heavy deals. That structural difference is one reason there’s a real debate about whether Soto’s contract is actually larger than Ohtani’s in present-value terms.
The takeaway for any player evaluating an offer: the total contract value, the average annual value (AAV), and the present-day value can be three very different numbers. The dollar today is worth more than the dollar in 2043, and any honest financial plan starts by understanding what you’re really getting and when.
The Cash Flow Reality Most People Miss
Even setting deferrals aside, MLB compensation has a structural feature that catches a lot of players off guard: you only get paid during the regular season.
MLB players receive their salary across roughly six months — May through October. The other six months of the year, the paychecks stop. For a player on a $20M salary, that means the entire year’s expenses, off-season training, family obligations, taxes, and any business or investment activity have to be funded from money that arrives in a tight window.
The longer the contract, the more this matters. A 14-year deal isn’t 14 years of steady cash flow — it’s 14 cycles of “feast in the summer, manage the rest of the year.” Players with long contracts often find themselves cash-poor on paper-rich balance sheets, especially if they’ve made real estate purchases, started businesses, or carry the kind of high-end lifestyle expenses that don’t pause in November.
This is the gap that MLB contract-based financing was built to close. Because the loan is secured by the guaranteed remaining value of the contract — not personal credit, not income history, not collateral — players can access a portion of that future money today, and structure repayment so payments are only due during the season when they’re actually being paid.
What Long Contracts Mean for Your Financial Strategy
If you’re a player with a long-term contract, an extension on the table, or a free-agent year approaching, here are the financial questions worth working through with your advisors well before you need the answer:
1. What is the present value of your deal, not just the headline? If your contract has deferrals, find out what discount rate is being applied and what your money is actually worth in today’s dollars. This affects everything from how you should be saving to what your real net worth looks like.
2. How much liquidity do you need outside the season? Map out 12 months of obligations — mortgage or rent, taxes, family support, business expenses, training, insurance — and compare it to your in-season net pay schedule. If the gap is meaningful, that’s the number that drives any cash-flow solution.
3. Are you using high-interest debt to bridge the off-season? This is common and almost always a mistake. Players sitting on massive guaranteed contracts who are carrying 12-18% credit card balances or short-term loans are paying a huge premium to access money they already own. A contract loan can typically refinance that debt at a fraction of the cost, with repayment matched to the season.
4. Are you in arbitration or approaching free agency? A signed long-term contract is the cleanest case for traditional financing. But if you’re still in arbitration or testing the market, contract-based financing isn’t an option — you’d be looking at arbitration financing or free agent financing instead, which use future market value rather than a current contract.
5. What about real estate? Long contracts often coincide with the decision to put down roots — buying in the team’s market, purchasing investment property, or maintaining homes in two states. Conventional underwriting struggles with athlete income (seasonal, deferred, geographically complex), which is why players often run into mortgage approval problems despite obviously qualifying. A specialized mortgage for athletes can finance up to 110% of purchase price at conventional rates — useful when you want to keep liquid capital deployed elsewhere.
The Bottom Line
The trend is clear: MLB contracts will keep getting longer, and deferral structures will keep getting more creative. Both of those things are great for the headline numbers and great for team-building flexibility. But neither one solves the basic problem that long contracts can leave players cash-constrained at exactly the moments — buying a home, funding a business, weathering an off-season, restructuring debt — when liquidity matters most.
A long contract is a tremendous asset. The question is whether your financial structure treats it like one.
Need help building a cash-flow strategy around your contract? Sure Sports specializes in financing solutions exclusively for professional athletes. Our team understands MLB contract structures, deferred compensation, and seasonal pay schedules — and we build loan terms around the realities of your career, not against them. Submit a confidential financing request or call us at (954) 620-7038 to start a conversation.
