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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
Juan Soto and the New York Yankees came to terms on a record-setting, $31 million salary for the 2024 season, topping the list of dozens of arbitration-eligible players who agreed on their compensation ahead of Thursday’s 8 p.m. ET deadline.
Soto’s salary, reached minutes before the deadline for players and teams to exchange figures ahead of a potential arbitration hearing, topped the $30 million figure Shohei Ohtani agreed to last offseason. Soto, like Ohtani last year, is heading into his final year before free agency.
The second-highest figure belonged to New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, another pending free agent, who will be paid $20.5 million in 2024. Milwaukee Brewers starter Corbin Burnes ($15.63 million), Atlanta Braves starter Max Fried ($15 million), Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres ($14.2 million), Cleveland Guardians starter Shane Bieber ($13.125 million) Brewers shortstop Willy Adames ($12.25 million), Houston Astros starter Framber Valdez ($12.1 million) and outfielder Kyle Tucker ($12 million), Baltimore Orioles outfielder Anthony Santander ($11.7 million) and Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker ($10.9 million) also reached eight figures.
One notable exception was Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’s two seasons away from free agency and projects for a salary in the neighborhood of $20 million this season. The Blue Jays did not include Guerrero among a list of 11 players who avoided arbitration, prompting the possibility that Guerrero and the Blue Jays settle his 2024 compensation in front of an arbitrator, with hearings scheduled in late January and early February.
Teams and their arbitration-eligible players — those typically with more than three and less than six years of major league service time — can continue to negotiate in the days leading up to a hearing. But most teams have treated the exchange deadline as a firm deadline to come to a deal in recent years, with some making an exception only for multi-year contracts.