As expected, the New York Mets are squarely in the hunt to sign Juan Soto. Whether they sign him or not remains to be seen, but there’s a good chance that they’ll end the bidding with the best offer. Adding Soto to a team that just took the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to six games in the NLCS is a sight no other National League team wants to see.

What’s scary about the Mets’ Juan Soto pursuit is that with where their payroll is currently, they have room to do a whole lot more than bring in the generational superstar.

Projected #MLB Tax Payrolls

1. PHI, $279M
2. LAD, $272M
3. SD, $244M
4. NYY, $235M
5. HOU, $230M
6. ATL, $204M
7. TOR, $196M
8. LAA, $187M
9. TEX, $184M
10. CHC, $182M
…
28. TB, $82M
29. CHW, $73M
30. ATH, $49Mhttps://t.co/KrugQaXkqn

— Spotrac (@spotrac) November 23, 2024

When looking at the top 10 payrolls as of now, the Mets are nowhere to be found. They currently rank 11th overall per Spotrac. They had a luxury tax payroll of over $350 million last season according to Spotrac – the highest in the majors. That was in a year that was supposed to see the Mets retooling, yet they made it to the NLCS. Now, their luxury tax payroll is under $145 million – over $200 million less is spent currently than last season, which is crazy to think about.

Mets current payroll gives them opportunity to have bonkers offseason

Having players like Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, and Luis Severino (to name a few) hit free agency is part of why the money is where it is right now, but a lot of the luxury tax payroll from last season was filled from dead money that the Mets were paying to players who didn’t make an impact on the team at all like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and James McCann.

That dead money is now off the books, giving the Mets ultimate flexibility here.

Signing Soto could take up around $60 million of their payroll, but all that’d do is push them to around $200 million – still outside of the top five overall. The Mets have not had a luxury tax payroll that wasn’t in the top five a single time in the Steve Cohen era, and have been the highest-paying tax team in three of his four seasons as the owner thus far.

With that in mind, Cohen has well over $100 million at his disposal just to get the Mets back to the top spot, and that’s if the other big market teams don’t do anything. For all we know, he could be willing to top the $350 million from last season, which would give him over $200 million to spend.

The Mets clearly have the money to blow Soto away with an offer. They also have the money to go out and sign an ace like Corbin Burnes or Blake Snell. They have the money to re-sign Alonso. They have the money to revamp their bullpen. They have the money to turn a very good team into one that can do a better job competing with the Dodgers.

Whether the Mets end up signing Soto or not, Steve Cohen has the wiggle room to make several big-ticket additions this offseason, making an already good Mets team that much better.