Juan Soto’s presence in free agency altered the value of the other players

The presence of the star player in free agency influenced a significant increase in the value of other free agents, as well as in the player exchange market.

Free agency and the player trade market are closely related. Although their characteristics are completely different, what happens in free agency has direct impacts on how much it will cost a team to obtain a player from another, and vice versa. That is why when players like Juan Sotothe prices of all level free agents, as well as potential players who are on the trading block, increase significantly.

The presence of Soto in free agency, which culminated in a historic 15-year, $765 million deal with New York Metsaltered the price of the other free agents for a simple reason in terms of economics, supply and demand, after creating a kind of “bottleneck” in which the most active teams on the market would wait for the outcome of the negotiations with the outfielder before paying attention to the few high-level free agents on the market.

As far as it has been reported, at least five teams made offers for the services of Soto: Metswho ended up staying with him, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. These five teams had clear needs to reinforce their outfields with the best talent available, but they also have other important holes.

The bidding between the five teams caused Soto’s market value to go from around $520 million for 13 years, according to the portal specialized in sports finance, Spotrac, until the contract he obtained.

The bid for Soto affected the deal of another player, who was reported to be an essential part of the plans of some franchises that were pursuing the outfielder: Willy Adames. out of nowhere, San Francisco Giants He went ahead and offered 182 million for seven years for the Dominican, above the projection of his salary, which was approximately 150 million dollars for six years. The departure of Adamesin turn, causes the other free agents with whom the other teams want to fill their needs to increase their price, since there are few high-level agents for which the organizations will have to debate, which implies a lot of demand for a low offer .

This has benefited other free agents such as the cases of Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernandezwho may see an increase in salary projections at the beginning of the offseason.

Another clear example of how the value of free agents has been altered is the contract of Max Fried with the Yankeeswho gave him 218 million dollars, the largest amount in history for a left-handed pitcher, this being simply a number to secure the signature and ward off possible competitors, who were reorganizing after the signing of Soto with the Mets.

At the same time, as there were few high-level free agents whose value rose after the bid for Sototeams see the trade market as the most viable option to fill the needs they have, but the teams that have material to change increase the prices of their players to obtain the greatest amount of talent available in exchange.

A clear example of this was the acquisition of Garrett Crochet on the part of Boston Red Soxwho had to give up four of their top fifteen prospects to get an extremely talented pitcher, but who only has two years of control left on his current rookie contract.

In fact, a source belonging to one of the 30 teams of Major Leagues pointed to AM850 Digital that due to the high price of free agents and players on the other hand, it is more than likely that, except for minor acquisitions, many teams will choose to trust in the material they have in their minor league branches and not make any movement that could compromise the group’s finances, nor force them to lose their best prospects.

So many teams focusing on and offering large sums of money to a single player caused a domino effect that made all offseason player acquisition operations more expensive. A big free agent that receives the attention of the main competitors in the market will always lead to a general increase in the acquisition price of all other top players and that has been proven with Juan Soto in 2024.