The champagne has barely dried. The Dodgers’ flight home from New York has barely tickled the runway. A long-awaited parade will unify Los Angeles around a World Series championship.
But who is going to sign Juan Soto?
Sure, he was a New York Yankees stalwart throughout the postseason. But now he’s a free agent, about to take offers from any team willing to cough up, what, $600 million, maybe more?
Major League Baseball moves from postseason fire to the offseason hot stove in a matter of moments. Free agents can negotiate only with their current teams for the first five days after the World Series. Contract options — either team or player — must be exercised within the same five days.
Read more: Plaschke: The Greatest! Historic Dodgers overpower Yankees for 8th World Series title
One more activity that must occur within the same time period is teams making qualified offers to their own free agents. Doing so means the team gets draft pick compensation if the free agent signs with another team. A qualified offer is $21.05 million for one season. Players have until Nov. 19 to accept.
The new class of free agents includes lots of starting pitching when starting pitching is less important than ever and a dearth of leverage relievers when leverage relievers are coveted more than ever.
Impact hitters are available at each position, followed by a drop off in talent. One clearly superior player — Soto — could challenge the record for most lucrative contract ever. His agent, Scott Boras, is the best in the business, and he doesn’t give hometown discounts or anything else that shaves numbers off the bottom line.
Boras, in fact, is the next most influential name. He represents seven of the top 10 players on The Times’ list and 10 of the top 24. He tends to drag out negotiations, so expect that several big names will remain on the market not only into 2025 but perhaps into spring training.
Read more: Shaikin: Scott Boras is 71. How much longer does baseball’s most famous agent plan to work?
Here are the top 30 free agents with a longer list to follow:
Name, age, positions, agent
Juan Soto, 26, OF, Scott Boras: Most free agents are on the wrong side of 30. Soto, on the other hand, turned 26 on Oct. 25 — the day his Yankees…