Juan Soto surprised Brett Baty with a brand new car for swapping Mets jersey numbers

After the New York Mets signed Juan Soto to the largest contract in MLB history, he made another deal with 25-year-old infielder Brett Baty.

Soto has worn No. 22 during the entirety of his MLB career with the Yankees, Padres, and Nationals. But that number was already taken by Baty, who has played for the Mets since 2022.

It was important for Soto to keep his jersey number, though, so he worked something out with Baty. The star outfielder surprised him with a car while at MLB Spring Training in Florida.

Juan Soto got Brett Baty a car after Baty gave up No. 22 in the offseason

(via @Mets/IG) pic.twitter.com/ID1MeooqWv

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) February 20, 2025

When he wanted to wear No. 22 with the Padres, his former teammate Nick Martinez asked him to buy him a boat. Soto thought that was a bit much but said he would have potentially gotten him a nice watch.

Now, however, Soto has more than enough money to make it happen.

This vehicle for Baty was a very generous gift from Soto, but it wasn’t the only thing he had to pay for to get this done.

“MLB has been enforcing a little-known rule in the collective bargaining agreement that requires player number changes to be requested prior to July 31 of the previous season, otherwise a player would have to purchase the existing inventory of merchandise wearing his old number.”

It nearly cost $225,000 when a similar incident happened involving the Minnesota Twins before Carlos Santana opted against it.

Soto, who has a No. 22 chain and wore it to his introductory press conference with the Mets, has explained why this was such an important number to him (via New York Post):

“Twenty-two is the first number I had when I made it to the big leagues … It was important to me. When the Nationals gave me that number, I was really happy, really excited. That was the first number I’ve ever wore and I am more than happy to keep embracing that number.”

Baty switched to wear No. 7 in part because he was a fan of former Mets star José Reyes, per MLB.com.