TThe bidding war for the most sought-after free agent in baseball history featured the usual suspects who have spent lavishly on superstars for decades – the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox – but none could match Steve Cohen, the league’s new kid on the block , trump heavy hitter.

Cohen, 68, whose estimated net worth of $21.3 billion is twice that of any other Major League Baseball owner, reportedly agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract on Sunday evening to sign 26-year-old outfielder Juan Soto, who wore Yankee pinstripes last season. The contract averages $51 million per year excluding deferred money, making it far more lucrative in current value terms than the $700 million deal Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers last winter most of it won’t be available for another decade.

On paper, the Mets don’t have the math to justify such a deal, but Cohen — who made much of his fortune from his hedge fund SAC Capital and now runs Point72 Asset Management — doesn’t need it either. Accordingly, the Mets generated sales of $393 million last year Forbes Estimates put them nowhere near their crosstown rivals, the Yankees, who led the league with $679 million.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers, who defeated the Bronx Bombers in the 2024 World Series and donated more than $1 billion to free agents like Ohtani and Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto last offseason, have $549 million to cover their expenses largely thanks to a 25-year career. In 2013, they signed an $8.4 billion local television deal with Time Warner Cable. While most MLB teams make a modest profit, Forbes It was estimated that the Mets posted an operating loss of $292 million.

The reality is that Cohen only needs his own wallet to compete with other teams’ systemic advantages. Three decades as one of Wall Street’s most successful hedge fund managers have given him enough leeway to withstand a nine-figure loss on his baseball team. His Point72 has $35 billion in assets under management, just six years after it opened to outside investors. (In 2016, Cohen was temporarily barred from managing debt capital by the SEC following insider trading allegations at SAC Capital.) Much of that is Cohen’s own assets, and he collects 2.85% management fees and performance fees of up to 30% annually for that matter .

John Malone, the cable television mogul who nominally owns the largest stake in the Atlanta Braves as chairman and majority shareholder of Liberty Media, is the second-richest MLB owner with an estimated fortune of $10.8 billion. Most of the league’s owners are significantly further behind.

And since the MLB is the only one of the four major American professional sports leagues that does not have a salary cap on team salaries, there is little to stop an owner with virtually limitless wealth from spending as much as he wants to win a title. The league does impose a “competitive equalization tax” on every dollar spent on player salaries above a predetermined threshold to limit the teams with the most resources, but that amount is more of a speed bump than a barrier. In 2025, that amount will be $241 million, and the Mets’ payroll has topped $300 million in each of the last two years. The Associated Press reported that the team’s tax bill for the 2023 season alone was over $100 million, which is a significant deterrent for any other team but is essentially a rounding error for Cohen.

When Cohen purchased the team for $2.4 billion in 2020, the lifelong Mets fan made it clear that winning was his top priority. In his opening press conference, Cohen said it would be “somewhat disappointing” if the team didn’t win a World Series within three to five years. Next year will be the Mets’ last chance to win their first championship since 1986 during that time frame, but Cohen’s ownership has already paid off with two playoff appearances in the last three seasons.

This year’s World Series matchup between the Dodgers and Yankees reinforced the idea that spending on top players tends to produce championship teams, and in the long run it might even be good business. The late George Steinbrenner made the Yankees the most valuable team in baseball at $7.55 billion by signing talent like Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi to eye-popping contracts, even without deep pockets like Cohen. Steinbrenner’s heirs, led by Hal Steinbrenner, the chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises who has a net worth of $1.5 billion and co-owns the team with his siblings, reportedly bid for a $760 million contract a 16-year term to keep Soto in the Bronx, where he starred last season in helping the team reach its first World Series since 2009.

Cohen’s deal for Soto represented his biggest statement yet that, in the words of Mets broadcaster Howie Rose, he is tired of being “the little brother in town.” He aimed right at the Yankees and everyone else. Is state.” And Mets fans have never been more hopeful than they are today, as a once-in-a-generation slugger is considered a cornerstone of the franchise as he enters his prime.

In the short term, Cohen will no doubt still see losses on the balance sheet, but the team continues to make sure fans help him recoup some of his investment. Even before the signing was officially announced, the Mets made single-game tickets for the 2025 season available for sale on Monday morning.

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