The first major domino of the MLB offseason has fallen! The San Diego Padres have agreed on a trade to send star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees. Outfielder Trent Grisham is also being included in the deal with the Yankees.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the deal is agreed upon, and will be made official soon.
Prior reports have said the return for Soto includes pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Johnny Brito, Randy Vásquez and catcher Kyle Higashioka.
It had long been thought that New York would be the landing spot if the Padres decided to move on from Soto, and they now get their man. The Yankees wanted to make a splash this offseason and now get the big fish that they have been going after.
The asking price for Soto was very high, but the Yankees found a way to meet it. If the prior reports are true, the Padres received a nice haul in this deal, and it should help set them up down the line to make another move.
King was great for the Yankees last season, posting an ERA of 2.75 over 104.2 innings of work. He would give the Friars a very nice arm to use out of the bullpen, or they could always use him as a multi-inning pitcher after an opener.
With the Padres front office needing to shed salary this winter, Soto became the likely casualty in the mix. He was scheduled to make over $30 million in arbitration, which was much more than the Padres' payroll could stomach.
This decision to shed payroll comes after the organization decided to go all-in financially over the last few seasons. It came back to hurt them, and now they move on from their star outfielder less than two seasons after acquiring him.
Last season for San Diego, Soto hit .275 with 35 home runs and 109 runs batted in. The Padres' front office is going to have their work cut out to replace that level of production.
The Padres' front office also has some work to do the rest of the offseason, but this move now opens the door to different routes. They still want to be competitive next season, and it'll be up to the president of baseball operations A.J. Preller to get creative in how he approaches the next move.
Soto is offically going to be gone from San Diego, closing the door on the one-and-a-half-year partnership between the two sides.
Best of luck in New York, Juan, and we look forward to seeing what the new Padres can do!
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