Trade Two: Dodgers trade Shohei Ohtani, Mets trade Juan Soto
Unlike the slightly more understated Betts-Witt trade, I think the pendulum is swinging too far in the "Holy crap!" direction on this one.
These are the two biggest players in the sport. If Doncic was traded for LeBron James (or maybe someone a little closer to their prime, like Nikola Jokic), this would be our winner. Soto and Ohtani currently have contracts in excess of $1.45 billion when combined.
Ohtani won his third MVP in four seasons in 2024, posting 9.2 bWAR as a pure DH. When he returns to the mound in 2025, he may go on to produce the best season in baseball history.
Meanwhile, Soto is fresh off another brilliant performance himself, finishing third in AL MVP voting in 2024 while sharing the stage with Aaron Judge. Now a member of the crosstown New York Mets, he figures to be the face of his new franchise for the duration of his 15-year contract.
Part of what made the Doncic trade so unbeliveable is that the Lakers definitively won it. Though Ohtani is so singular that it'd be hard to consider the Mets a "loser" in this prospective trade, Soto is so good in his own right that this trade would do better in melting fans' brains rather than freezing them.
Likewise, the Dodgers just won the World Series. Doncic may have piloted his team to the NBA Finals last year, but they fell to the Boston Celtics. To really capture the essence of the NBA deal, we need to turn our attention to the team that just fell short.