Paul Skenes
Starting pitchers are notoriously risky signings, and as such none have received even half the commitment Juan Soto just did. However, the free agent market has been friendly to starters recently, with the Nathan Eovaldi, Blake Snell, Max Fried and Luis Severino signings showing that teams are willing to pay a premium to fill their rotations.
These days, the starting pitching top shelf is not as well-stocked as it used to be. While Gerrit Cole and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have commanded deals around $325 million, Cole signed his after his age-29 season and Yamamoto had no MLB track record. Other recent substantial contracts were either settled after turning 30 (Stephen Strasburg, David Price, Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer) or outside of free agency (Clayton Kershaw).
Paul Skenes has the potential to change that. Skenes is 22 and coming off an amazing rookie season in which he debuted in mid-May and still finished third in Cy Young voting. Much like Soto, he cut the line to stardom at a precocious age and is set to hit free agency after the 2029 season, when he’ll be 27.
He will be older than Soto currently is, and teams generally give pitchers less years overall, but there may be a future where Skenes continues to dominate, stays healthy, and enters free agency when multiple financial titans are desperate for elite starting pitching. He is also already nationally popular, and though he’ll likely never reach Ohtani’s levels of fame, it could be an important asset in teams' pursuits.