Last offseason, MLBTR took extensive looks at how the market for each of the top free agents might shake out, providing those pieces to our Front Office subscribers. We're doing the same this winter, kicking things off with a look at the likely bidders for and where each stands with regard to payroll and the luxury tax, among other aspects that ought to be considered. At this point, there's little need to chronicle Soto's greatne s to this point in his career. In our Top 50 Free Agent rankings, , outlining just some of the reasons he's rightly referred to as a "generational" talent (a term that perhaps is used a bit too cavalierly these days). To borrow a couple excerpts from that: "Its rare for a player to even make his big league debut at 19, let alone to immediately break out as a star. Thats precisely what Soto did, however, belting an opposite-field home run off in his second big league plate appearance. One home run doesnt make anyone a star, of course, but Soto was completely unfazed by MLB pitching and went on to post a .292/.406/.517 batting line and swat 22 homers all before turning 20. In the entire history of the game, no one as young as Soto has turned in a season that good. Sotos 142 OPS+ in his rookie season is Arturs Silovs Jersey the best in MLB history (min. 300 plate appearances). Sotos debut harkened back to Hall of Famer Mel Otts jaw-dropping 19-year-old rookie season with the New York Giants exactly 90 years prior." That, of course, is just looking at his rookie year. Soto's only gotten better since then, recording more walks than strikeouts in five consecutive seasons. He belted a career-high 41 homers this past season while slashing .288/.419/.569. By measure of wRC+, he was 80% better than league average at the plate (and somehow still only his team's second-best hitter; we see you, ). Yet Soto and all of his career accolades are hitting the open market at just 26 years of age. Judge, by comparison, played his first full season at age 25. He was entering his age-31 season in free agency. was entering his age-29 campaign. Free agents rarely hit the market this young, and it's feasible we haven't even seen the best version of Soto yet. When it comes to contract expectations, throw precedent and norms out the window. If you're not willing to put down at least a decade -- and likely 12, 13, 14 or even 15 years -- you're not likely to get a seat at the table. (Though it's fun to at least think of a clean-payroll club offering an extreme AAV on a shorter-term deal with an opt-out; six years, $450MM anyone?) We know most of the teams that have already met with Soto by now, but let's take a look at each and try to identify which clubs might emerge as the ever-popular "mystery team" based on their payroll, tax status, and other factors. Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription BENEFITS Acce s weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco. Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony. Remove ads and support our writers. Acce s GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker Elias Pettersson Jersey