MLB’s next $600 million star? Passan predicts mega-contracts..
Almost as soon as Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million free agent contract with the New York Mets over the winter, a question was bandied about in front offices across the sport: Who is going to be the player to break Soto’s record for overall value?
Answering that was harder than it seemed, partly because Soto’s deal shattered all previous ones (Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract had a present value of less than $500 million), but also because a number of players who would have been threats had signed contract extensions already. To even be considered for a deal of that magnitude takes the rare combination of age and superstardom, and with Bobby Witt Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Corbin Carroll and Jackson Chourio all locked up long term, the candidates are severely limited. The extension months later for San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill erased one of the prime candidates to dethrone Soto.
Expanding the exercise to those executives and agents made for a far more interesting question: Who are the $100 million-plus players in the game right now?
The nine-figure contract isn’t as uncommon as it used to be — more than 150 have been given to players since the first was signed by Kevin Brown in 1998 — but it remains perhaps the clearest threshold of an excellent player. And so off we went on a quest with baseball insiders to identify the next generation of $100 million players.
Here are the names that came up most, from the crowded $100 million tier all the way to the superstar deemed most likely to land the next $600 million megadeal.
Why Is Emma Stone a Padres Fan? Uncovering the Reasons Behind Her Team Choice..
Why exactly is Emma Stone a fan of the Padres?
In May 2025, Emma Stone went viral for something totally unexpected: cheering at a Padres-Yankees game like her life depended on it. She wasn’t just casually watching. She was in it. Fully committed, decked out in a vintage Padres jacket, and celebrating an Aaron Judge strikeout like it was Opening Day in San Diego.
Naturally, people lost their minds. Emma is from Arizona. She doesn’t have a public history of repping baseball teams. So this sudden moment had the internet asking a very specific question: Why is Emma Stone a Padres fan?
Emma Stone at the Screen Actors Guild.
Source: Mega
Why is Emma Stone a Padres fan? This isn’t some sudden, surface-level trend.
Emma didn’t just throw on some Padres merch for the camera. According to Sports Illustrated, she went viral in 2025 after showing up at a Yankees game and proudly celebrating in Padres gear. What really stood out to fans wasn’t just her enthusiasm; it was the jacket. It wasn’t new. It wasn’t a merch table buy. It was older Padres gear, which longtime fans immediately recognized.
This wasn’t the first time people noticed either. Back in 2023, a Reddit post showed that Padres fans had already clocked her as one of their own. At the time, fans were stunned to discover that Emma not only had Padres merch but had likely owned it for a while. That revelation made it clear: This wasn’t a fluke. Emma wasn’t just posing. She was actually a fan.
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Now, this is where things get confusing. Emma was born in Arizona. Turns out, her connection to the Padres has more to do with love than geography. She’s married to Dave McCary, a director and former Saturday Night Live writer. According to USA Today, Dave has been a Padres fan for years. Dave grew up with the team. It’s a lifelong loyalty, the kind of fandom that doesn’t disappear when you move or change your career.
If you’ve ever been in a relationship with a sports fan, you know how this goes. What starts as tagging along “just for fun” becomes part of the routine. Eventually, you’re celebrating playoff wins and learning the players’ names without even trying. For Emma, it seems like rooting for the Padres became something she and Dave did together.
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