The post Costly Free Agents Help Yankees And Dodgers Reach Playoffs Again appeared com. Lured by the largest and longest contract in baseball history, Juan Soto jumped from the Mets to the Yankees and hit a career-best 43 homers. That time-tested philosophy bookended the 2025 baseball season, which began with a pair of record free-agent signings and ended with two of the three top-paid teams in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees last years World Series opponents invested heavily in the open market and reaped big dividends as a result. The New York Mets, another big-spending team, werent so fortunate. Sotos Windfall After a wild winter bidding war, the Mets lured slugging outfielder Juan Soto from the Yankees with a record contract of $765 million, to be paid up-front over 15 years at an average annual rate of $51 million. Then the crosstown Yankees used some of the money ticketed for Soto on an eight-year, $218 million pact for star starting pitcher Max Fried. It was the largest and longest contract ever given a left-handed pitcher. Sandwiched between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in a potent Mets lineup, Soto hit a career-best 43 home runs and just missed a rare 40/40 season when he finished with a league-leading 38 stolen bases. In his first year with the Yankees after signing an eight-year contract, Max Fried led the majors with 19 wins and filled the void created by Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery. 86 earned run average, pitching the Yankees into the playoffs. Along with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees proved.