⚾ Sports Money

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Two weeks ago, baseball sensation Juan Soto etched his name in history in a way which certainly made lots of people happy. His family, for one, and the New York Mets. Oh, and his home country of the Dominican Republic.

Soto signed with the Queens-based Mets for a record-shattering $765M contract, the largest professional sports contract of all time. To give you an idea, this 26-year old’s grandparents likely lived through a time where the Dominican Republic’s total economy was smaller than that contract figure.

While Yankees fans will no doubt mourn the loss of such a catch to their intracity rivals, Soto won’t be alone among well-paid Caribbean superstars on the Mets—or in Major League Baseball.

Puerto Rico’s own Francisco Lindor, the so-called “Mr. Smile,” signed a $341M decade-long contract of his own with the blue and orange back in 2022, a smidge higher than Soto’s compatriot Fernando Tatís Jr., nicknamed Bebo, got out of the San Diego Padres on the West Coast just a year before.

Granted, these men are locking in for decade-long, even fifteen-year contracts, which can be the norm in baseball. Outside of the sport, though, you better believe Latin Americans are still securing the bag.

In 2018, Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez signed an eleven-fight $365M deal with British streaming service DAZN, before ending the arrangement in 2020 over disputes regarding his opponents.

But without a doubt, to really see big purse strings each year you’d have to look to the world’s most popular sport.

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