The San Diego Padres reportedly are more likely to keep Juan Soto than trade him, a person close to the slugger told reporter Héctor Gómez.
A trade isn’t out of the question, however. Per that report, the New York Yankees, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants have been involved in trade talks.
The Yankees have been regularly linked to Soto at this point, hardly a surprise for an organization that prioritizes star-hunting:
MLB Network @MLBNetwork
“The Yankees are going to be all over [Juan] Soto in the same way that they’re all over Cody Bellinger.”
– @jonmorosi on #MLBNHotStove pic.twitter.com/E6quRaDrsp
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last week, meanwhile, that two top-100 prospects could be enough to pry Soto away from San Diego:
B/R Walk-Off @BRWalkoff
.@JonHeyman says two Top-100 prospects ‘could possibly’ get a Juan Soto deal done ♻️ pic.twitter.com/h0BBwyOBcq
Soto, 25, was one of the non-disappointing aspects of the 2023 season for the Padres, hitting .275 with 35 homers, 109 RBI, 97 runs and a .930 OPS. He was an All-Star, Silver Slugger and played in all 162 games.
But he’s also set to be a free agent after the 2024 season, and if San Diego wants to simultaneously trim payroll and avoid the risk of losing Soto in free agency without getting anything in return, trading him this winter would make sense.
Padres’ general manager A.J. Preller told reporters last week, however, that a player like Soto “is always in your plans” while discussing his future:
“Obviously that’s the offseason. We’ll get to the next couple of weeks and continue conversations with (agent Scott Boras) and Juan and get a sense of where he’s at, for what it means down the road for San Diego in terms of a contract. And then also, we understand the value of Juan playing for us next year on a contract year. So having his bat in the lineup is important. At the end of the day, you’re always, from an offseason standpoint, you’ll listen and we’ll listen, but we think our position player team is very strong. We’d like to keep that position player team together. We also understand that we want to add some pitching to the group we currently have. That’s what the next few weeks will be about.”
The Mets, fresh off their own incredibly disappointing season, are another team that has gone star-hunting in recent years. That arguably left them with a bloated payroll and an underachieving roster, and the indication from owner Steve Cohen was that the 2024 campaign likely wouldn’t include costly acquisitions.
The Giants, on the other hand, have been trying to land a major star in recent years, notably missing out on Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa last winter (though they did have an agreement with the latter before it fell through over issues with his physical).
If the Giants can’t land Shohei Ohtani, turning to Soto in a trade scenario would make a lot of sense as they look to bring star power back to the Bay.
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