MLB Power Rankings: How Juan Soto signing with Mets will change the 2025 postseason bracket

Earlier in the MLB offseason, I pondered how it must feel to wake up every morning and know that teams are fighting for the right to pay you around $700 million. Now I can officially ask...How do you think it feels to sign a contract for $765 million? That number doesn't even feel real to type out, but that's the contract that Juan Soto signed with the New York Mets on Sunday night over the course of 15 years.

The year 2039 doesn't feel real, but that's when Soto's contract will expire. What will the world look like in 2039? Who knows? Juan Soto will probably still be really good at baseball, though, so you can't fault this deal.

Soto is one of the most prized free agent additions in recent MLB memory and impacts a lineup as much as any other player in the sport. And after a magical Mets season that culminated in a NLCS run (where New York lost to the eventual World Series Champs Los Angeles Dodgers) the Mets won the Soto sweepstakes and got the grand prize in the free agent market.

MLB Power Rankings after Juan Soto signs with Mets

1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. New York Mets
3. San Diego Padres
4. Philadelphia Phillies
5. New York Yankees
6. Baltimore Orioles
7. Cleveland Guardians
8. Houston Astros
9. Atlanta Braves
10. Milwaukee Brewers

Are the New York Mets contenders in the National League?

The first question after the Soto signing is where exactly Soto will fit into the Mets lineup. Francisco Lindor, the Mets leadoff hitter and NL MVP runner-up, will undoubtedly still lead off for the Mets, but Soto might well fit right in after Lindor and before young stud Mark Vientos, who became a folk hero in the playoffs last year.

This lineup is stacked. The versatility in the top of this lineup will make opposing pitchers have nightmares. Soto being a constant on-base threat will then open things up for the rest of the lineup which can also mash with the best of them.

Dodgers death lineup might still have upper hand

Again, Soto makes all the difference in the world. And for a team that was already in the NLCS, a superstar, $765 million man can definitely be the X-factor and the guy who gets a team over the proverbial hump.

However, the team they lost to, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are still the juggernaut they were last year and will be tough to upend even with a Soto infusion in New York.

Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Tommy Edman and most of the Dodgers who helped LA steamroll its way to the World Series will still take the field in Dodger blue next season. At this present moment, the Dodgers lineup is still just a little bit deeper than the Mets is.

That's not to say the Mets shouldn't have signed Soto, either — this was an obvious move to make and puts this lineup near the top of the National League. Being just a little bit below the Los Angeles Dodgers isn't a bad spot to be in.

The rest of the National League

Atlanta's season fizzled out — not having Ronald Acuna will do that. But Atlanta still remains a threat to win it all in 2025, and we should prep for a big bounceback from this offense.

New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS last year and likely just made the gap between them and the Phillies even bigger by adding Soto to the mix. Philadelphia is likely to make some moves of its own this offseason — trading Alec Bohm seems like a foregone conclusion — but it's not likely the Phils will do anything that can match the Juan Soto signing for the Mets.

San Diego, meanwhile, was never really in on Soto but believes in the lineup it has to compete with the rest of the league; it might, too.

Yankees lose a superstar

Not only did the Mets add Soto, they also stole him from their crosstown rival New York Yankees. New York's duo of Soto and Aaron Judge was essentially impossible to pitch to, and the Yanks losing out on their own superstar knocks them down a few pegs in the power rankings. Not having Juan Soto is as bad as having Juan Soto is good. New York's lineup is still poignant, but it just lost one of its superstars.