Soto and Ohtani eating with Messi, LeBron, and Canelo after latest earnings revealed
Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto, appear in the Top 10 of the highest paid athletes of 2025 after signing multimillion-dollar contract.
Never before in the history of Major League Baseball had a player earned more than $100 million in a single year. According to Sportico’s list of the highest-paid athletes, that barrier was broken in 2025, when two MLB players surpassed the mark: Juan Soto of the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Soto even managed to crack the overall Top 5, earning a total of $129.2 million. Ohtani, meanwhile, generated the bulk of his income through sponsorships after choosing to defer most of his salary in his record-breaking contract.
The Dominican outfielder was only behind global sporting icons such as Cristiano Ronaldo at $260 million, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at $137 million and Lionel Messi at $130 million, while finishing ahead of athletes of the calibre of LeBron James.
On December 8, Soto made history by signing a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets, the most lucrative contract ever agreed in professional sports.
Americans dominate Sportico’s annual look at the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes, nabbing 62 entries. Yet, the very top of the athlete financial table is a global affair with 12 different countries represented by the 15 best-paid sports stars. LeBron James the only American in… pic.twitter.com/r8fltdiyDp
— Sportico (@Sportico) January 14, 2026
“It was a collective decision; we checked every aspect of the proposal, everything. But the Mets weren’t the team that offered the most money. There were teams that offered more than the Mets,” Soto said after finalising the deal.
Now, Soto carries the responsibility of bouncing back after a disappointing Major League season, one in which he was among the Yankees’ biggest letdowns as they were eliminated from the playoffs. He finished the year with 105 RBIs, 43 home runs and 120 runs scored.
Despite Soto’s enormous salary, there is little doubt that the face of baseball remains Shohei Ohtani. Although his on-field salary was just $2.5 million due to deferred payments that will continue after his contract expires, he earned an estimated $100 million from sponsorships alone.
That sponsorship figure places Ohtani in an exclusive group previously reached only by Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Stephen Curry.
“We are very careful and strategic with the game plan for Shohei,” said his CAA agent, Nez Balelo, in a telephone interview with Sportico. “It’s important to be aligned with all the brands we work with in terms of how they use Shohei in their campaigns.” Balelo added that particular care has been taken to avoid overexposing Ohtani or overwhelming his schedule.
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Ohtani is also the most followed MLB player on Instagram, with nine million followers, compared to Soto’s 1.7 million.
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