Not fair! 📝

CHARTS 🌁

New Sherriff in town 👮

What could you buy with $765 million? I guess maybe a better question is what couldn’t you buy… 💰

Juan Soto, likely THE best young player in baseball, just signed a 15-year, $765 million deal that will last him until the age of 41. Plus it’s all guaranteed. So if he gets injured or doesn’t play well ever again, he’s still cashing $51M to the bank account every year.

In the chart above, each dot represents one of the top 100 contracts by total value across all sports, with Juan’s deal deservedly sitting at the top. But it’s also the furthest to the right, marking it as the longest contract in baseball history. 👴

Now, let’s revisit that $51 million per year figure. By examining the slope of each dot on this chart, we can determine how much a player earns annually.

You guys remember “rise over run” right? 🧮

Take these two contracts above for example: Jayson Tatum and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, both signed deals at approximately $315M in total 👯 but Tatum’s deal spans five years, while Yamamoto’s stretches over twelve. A simple calculation reveals that Tatum earns $62 million per year—more than double Yamamoto’s meager $25.8 million annually. 🤏

Bet you never thought algebra would come into play this late in life.

With your refreshed y=mx+b knowledge in mind, one thing should immediately stand out here—the soccer contracts. ⚽️ Three of the top six contracts by value belong to soccer stars you’ve probably heard of: Messi, Ronaldo, and Karim Benzema.

Together, these three athletes boast over a billion followers on social media and are among the most recognizable people on the planet—especially outside the United States. 🌎

Now, about these contracts…

Messi ✍️
Leo Messi currently plays in the MLS, but his record-breaking contract dates back to his time with Barcelona. Signed in 2017, it was worth an astonishing $674 million over four years. That’s just shy of $170 million per year and, when broken down further, an incredible $4.4 million per game he played.

Ronaldo and Benzema ✍️
Both megastars were in the later stages of their careers when they signed with Saudi clubs in 2023. Despite the short contracts—2.5 years for Ronaldo and 2 years for Benzema—the numbers are staggering: $536 million and $447 million, respectively. On a per-year basis, that’s $214 million for Ronaldo and $223 million for Benzema—more than four times Juan Soto’s annual figure we discussed earlier.

You may have gathered this by now but there isn’t a salary cap 🙅 in global soccer especially not in Saudi soccer leagues… These teams can spend to their heart’s, wallet’s, or Crown Prince’s desire to bring fans and attention to their teams which we see on display with all 3 of these contracts.

Take a look at our technical grouping mechanism (hand-drawing on a graph), and you’ll notice how these high-value baseball contracts often stretch over an extended period of time. 📅

But why? I’m certainly not the purveyor of absolute truth on this matter but a lot of it comes down to the lack of a salary cap in the MLB. Ownership groups can spend freely and craft more “creative” deals to manage massive expenses—like Shohei Ohtani’s deferred money.

There’s a significant amount of “we’ll deal with it later” in baseball these days. But when you’re worth $21 billion, like the Mets’ owner, it probably doesn’t matter if Juan Soto isn’t the same man he once was in 2034. 👴

Football and basketball contracts are arguably the most "grounded in reality" of any professional sports deals (aside from the NHL, which didn’t have representation in the top 100 😭). With a salary cap in place, front offices must conduct meticulous due diligence to keep a team healthy and winning. 🏆

Through that process, key questions arise like how much is this player truly worth to the team? What value do they bring to the franchise? How much do they contribute to winning?

These questions seem often overlooked in baseball contracts… 🙈

The graph above shows that the highest-value NBA and NFL contracts typically fall within 4 to 6 years. Which makes sense since the CBA strictly limits contract lengths - teams can sign free agents for a maximum of 4 years, extend their own players for up to 5 years, or extend rookies or veterans for up to 6 years.

In the NFL, while there’s no limit on contract length, the league’s performance-driven nature means teams are cautious. Injury risks and performance uncertainties make decade-long commitments rare. 🔎

That said, exceptions exist for players like Patrick Mahomes, a proven franchise star whose 10-year deal reflects his unparalleled value. Such risks aren’t taken lightly on less established players.

OTHER STUFF WE MADE 🎥

Eras Tour x Sports 🎤

Early Signing Day in College Football ✍️

How Expansion Drafts work 📋

Bryson DeChambeau Challenge ⛳️

Our crazy idea for SF 🌉