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The Washington Nationals did what once seemed unthinkable on Tuesday: they traded Juan Soto.
Soto is 23, one of the best sluggers in the world and has been under the team’s control for well over two seasons. That made Tuesday’s deal with the San Diego Padres almost unprecedented. But after Soto turned down the team’s latest contract offer, a potential $440 million extension, Washington’s front office plotted a deal that rocked Major League Baseball, changed the course of the franchise and shook a fanbase and a one-star city after another lost since the Nationals won the 2019 World Series.
To call it just the biggest deal of baseball’s trading period falls short. With Soto only set to reach free agency after the 2024 season, the Padres should take the hitting outfielder through three playoff races and give them a dazzling lineup full of young stars.
Nationals supporters, meanwhile, watch as another hometown staple leaves Washington. Bryce Harper, who won an MVP award with the Nationals, went to Philadelphia after the 2018 season. One of the World Series heroes, Anthony Rendon, joined the Los Angeles Angels in late 2019. Last July, the team traded Trea Turner and Max Scherzer for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This latest deal, which also included Washington’s first baseman Josh Bell, produced some of the best talent in the San Diego farm system. But the Nationals, already saddled with baseball’s worst record, will become even less competitive as the summer progresses.
Yes, Washington landed a big catch: first baseman/designated hitter Luke Voit, shortstop CJ Abrams, left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore, outfielders Robert Hassell III and James Wood, and right-handed pitcher Jarlin Susana. But there is no replacement for Soto and what he has meant to the organization since he debuted in 2018 aged 19. As the Nationals stumble to another last place, they had sold a quick restart around Soto, a one-time generation hitter and one of the few reasons to follow the team this summer.
In recent days, San Diego has been in the mix for Soto along with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. But on Tuesday morning, the Padres were a clear frontrunner with Soto and Bell in play as a package deal.
Bell is leaving Washington after less than two seasons, a streak highlighted by his 2022 career numbers. But Soto’s impending departure is the real blow to the franchise and its fans, coming a year and three days after the Nationals sent Turner and Scherzer to the Nationals, comes Dodger. The Padres will soon visit Nationals Park for a three-game series beginning Aug. 12.
That ends Soto’s four-year streak with the Nationals, the team that signed him as a teenager from the Dominican Republic in 2015. Soto, still only 23, has packed this tenure with a World Series ring, a National League batting title and two Silver Slugger Awards, two top five finishes on MVP voting and two All-Star appearances. In July, he won the Home Run Derby at Dodger Stadium, contributing to a resume that should belong to a mid-career star and not someone who can’t rent a car with no underage fees.
Soto is just so decorated and so young, and he’s following in the statistical footsteps of all-time players like Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Trout. Soto combines power and contact ability with otherworldly plate discipline. That’s why he asked the Padres for such a big reward. Baseball writers once spent an off-season comparing him to Ted Williams, one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
But his steady dominance complicated his future in Washington. Soto has long been keen to reach free agency after the 2024 season, the only way to see how the open market appreciates him. Still, the Nationals scrambled to sign him on a long-term extension – a goal made even more pressing after the club began rebuilding last summer, delivering eight veterans for 12 unproven players.
First, there was a $350 million 13-year contract offer to Soto in November. After that, Washington increased the numbers in May, then even more at 15 years and $440 million a month ago. Soto didn’t accept this as he felt he was worth more than an average annual value of $29.3 million. On July 16, that offer — the largest in MLB history by total contract value — was released and released alongside the Nationals’ intention to hear trade offers for Soto before the deadline.
Without an extension and with Soto being more valuable that he would take part in trade talks over the winter, the front office was abandoned to do what once seemed unthinkable. Trading with Juan Soto? Treat the player to some of the biggest hits in club history – Josh Hader’s go-ahead single in the NL wildcard game; Clayton Kershaw’s scoring homer in Game 5 of the NL Division Series; towering shots against Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander in the World Series – while his prime might be ahead, not behind him?
On July 1, General Manager Mike Rizzo was asked about the possibility of trading with Soto in an interview on 106.7 the Fan. He was defiant, saying the Nationals won’t buy their best player, which is one of the few reasons to come to the stadium. Then everything changed when 15 years and $440 million fell flat. Money often has this effect.
Soto’s journey didn’t begin when he debuted at Nationals Park at 19. She didn’t start at the club’s academy in the Dominican Republic, where he spent extra hours on Rosetta Stone to perfect his English. It didn’t start when the team first discovered him as a left-handed pitcher who could bat a bit.
For Soto, it all started in a Santo Domingo living room when his father threw him bottle caps, which the little boy slammed against the walls. He wanted to be Manny Ramirez or Robinson Canó. On long days on the playground, he mimicked Canó’s uppercut, and the other kids called him “Little Robbie.” Baseball has a long tradition in their common country. He, too, dreams of major league glory.
Those dreams brought Soto to Washington; in a Nationals uniform across America; to the highs of the World Series and the lows of a rebuild. Next, they’ll take him to San Diego, where a new following will hang on to each of his at-bats. Soto has always been a player who blinks and might miss. So trading him means DC will miss a lot.
Barry Svrluga contributed to this report, which has been updated.
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