The Boston Red Sox appear ready to show that they are serious about making major upgrades to the team this offseason. The Red Sox are reportedly one of five teams with concrete contract offers on the table to Juan Soto, the most highly-prized free agent on the market.

But according to a report published by NESN.com, the website of the Red Sox-owned television network, Soto has set his contract demands at a historically high figure. Whether the Red Sox’ offer meets what Soto is said to be looking for remains an open question, because no details of the offer have been made public.

Soto is said to be seeking a 15-year contract that would theoretically bind him to whichever team signs him until the age of 41. The dollar figure Soto wants, according to the report, tops $700 million.

That comes to an average annual value of $46.7 million.

Soto Reportedly Will Not Accept Deferred Payments

Last offseason’s most sought-after free agent, Shohei Ohtani, inked a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers — an apparent average annual value of $70 million per year. But Ohtani agreed with the Dodgers on a clause that would delay paying him $680 million of the contract’s value until 2034.

At that point, when Ohtani’s current contract is complete, the Dodgers would begin paying him an average of $68 million per year over a 10-year span. In other words, for the length of his active contract, Ohtani will collect just $2 million per year from the Dodgers.

But according to the reports on Soto’s contract demands, the 26-year-old four-time All Star is not willing to accept deferred salary payments, meaning that signing him will cause a hit of nearly $50 million per season to the team that wins the bidding war for his services.

Though Boston’s upper management has vowed that this year will be different, the Red Sox have been mostly reluctant to shell out big bucks in the free agent market since they last won the World Series in 2018. Other than inking their own star third baseman Rafael Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension, Boston’s biggest signing has been often-injured shortstop Trevor Story.

The Red Sox signed the former Colorado Rockies shortstop to a six-year, $140 million deal prior to the 2022 season. But in the first three years of his contract, Story has appeared in just 163 games for Boston.

Opt-Out Clause May Make Soto Deal Workable For Red Sox

What would allow the Red Sox to shell out historically big bucks for Soto? The hosts of the popular Bastards of Boston Baseball podcast have a theory.

“The Juan Soto deal will ESSENTIALLY be for 4-5 years. Because it will have an opt out clause. And he will opt out,” they wrote on their X (formerly Twitter) account. “Thats why the Red Sox are interested. Big money. But a short term deal.”

However, a Soto deal with an opt-out would be the exception rather than the rule among recent big-name, long-term free agent contracts. Mookie Betts signed a 12-year, $365 million deal with the Dodgers prior to the 2020 season with no way for him to opt out. The Angels’ Mike Trout and the Phillies’ Bryce Harper, signed 13-year and 12-year contracts, respectively, with no opt-out clauses.

Ohtani’s contract with the Dodgers includes an opt-out, but the player can activate the clause only under very specific conditions, namely, “if specific change [occurs] in Dodger personnel, [Ohtani] may opt out of contract at end of season the change occurs.”