We’re a week removed from one of the biggest blockbusters in MLB history, the deal that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell from the Nationals to the Padres for five young players and first baseman Luke Voit. Jeff Passan of ESPN takes a long look into the process that eventually led to the deal in a piece that’s well worth a read in full.
A Soto trade seemed unfathomable around a month before the deadline, with Washington general manager Mike Rizzo flatly stating the club wouldn’t deal him. That was before Soto passed on a 15-year, $440MM extension offer that apparently represented the Nationals final offer. At that point, Rizzo and his staff reversed course and turned their attention to the trade market. Passan writes the Nationals identified the Padres, Dodgers, Yankees, Cardinals, Mariners, Rays, Rangers and Blue Jays as a preliminary list of teams with the kind of young talent to pull off a deal.
According to Passan, the Nats had whittled that down to a trio of the Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres by the final week of July. With St. Louis reportedly reluctant to include Dylan Carlson in a package that also included a number of top prospects, Los Angeles and San Diego became the final two. Passan relays that San Diego and Washington higher-ups really gathered momentum late into the evening of August 1, the night before the trade deadline. A late entrant to discussions was the inclusion of Bell, one of the top rental bats available, to convince the Friars to part with high-upside 18-year-old pitcher Jarlin Susana. By the middle of the night on August 1-2, Passan reports, the parties agreed to the package of young talent that’d go back to Washington pending review of medical records the next morning. (Passan adds the humorous anecdote that San Diego president of baseball operations A.J. Preller then continued working deep into the night on additional trade possibilities before falling asleep in the middle of a conversation with a member of his scouting staff).
While the initial iteration of the deal included Eric Hosmer going to Washington, the first baseman exercised his limited no-trade protection to block the deal. San Diego pivoted and traded Hosmer to the Red Sox, and Passan writes that San Diego and Washington had each previously agreed that one of Voit or Wil Myers could take Hosmer’s place in the event he refused to waive his no-trade clause.
“We did as well as we could do,” Rizzo opined to Passan. “You lost a Hall of Famer at 23, but I think we expedited our reboot. When you’re looking at the alternative, the same narrative would’ve been out there this winter. If you don’t trade him now, what are you doing in the offseason? I give the Padres’ ownership credit. And I give A.J. credit because he’s not afraid to make a trade like this. And I give our ownership credit.”
Preller went into detail about his team’s involvement in the Soto discussions during an appearance this afternoon on The Show, a podcast from the New York Post with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman. The San Diego baseball operations leader confirmed the Nationals identified his system as one of a handful that could support a blockbuster of this magnitude early in the process.
“We could tell we were going to be one of the final teams if we wanted to participate,” Preller told the Post. “You never know if you’re going to be the team. It’s like anything else, there’s going to be two or three teams that all have really strong packages. … There was just a lot of debate and discussion for us over the next few weeks about the right thing to do, the right players to give up.”
Once the sides were nearing agreement on the prospect return, the onus fell on San Diego to push the deal across the finish line, Preller explains. “At the end, you have to decide. Do you want to do this or not? That’s kind of the gut-check at the end, when the Nats put it on you: ’this five or six-player package gets it done.’ That’s when you come back into the room with your small group of people and (owner) Peter Seidler. It’s on the table if we want to do this. And if we don’t do it, ultimately we have to live with the fact that he may go elsewhere. … At the end of the day, you have to make that decision.”
Obviously, Preller and his group decided to pull the trigger, although he indicated the club wasn’t narrowly focused on a Soto deal. Preller confirmed to the Post that San Diego was involved in discussions with the Angels about Shohei Ohtani. He said there was some but not entire overlap in the young players of interest to both Washington and Anaheim but indicated the Angels were ultimately unwilling to part with Ohtani. Heyman reported last week that Angels owner Arte Moreno wouldn’t sign off on an Ohtani trade while Mike Trout is on the injured list.
Padres fans and/or anyone interested in additional details about San Diego’s trade talks will want to check out Preller’s interview with Heyman and Sherman in full. Preller also discussed the necessity of balancing a roster with star talent and depth, the acquisition of All-Star reliever Josh Hader from the Brewers, plans for rehabbing star Fernando Tatis Jr., and his team’s struggles against the Dodgers among other topics.
Really doesn’t matter what the Padres do if they can’t beat the dodgers.
Dodgers completely own them
Which will make the ultimate victory all the more sweeter… you know what I’m talking about, dontcha Milwaukee?
Nope.
– Milwaukee fan
You realize it’s early August? In the regular season? None of this will matter in a few months…
You realize with the new play off format with extra teams that just getting into the playoffs is enough and everything resets. Last year 2021 the dodgers owned the Braves in regular season than play off time it was different.
Also this trade is about 2023 and 2024 as much as this year. The dodgers have some underperforming players and players who may be leaving via free agency.
Anything short of a world series appearance by the dodgers is going be viewed as a bad year. If that happens no World Series win they have to turn around and fill holes for 2023 to worry about padres
Dodgers aren’t that special. A team once beat them with a trash can.
Funny there’s no mention of Scott Boras who represents multiple players from BOTH the Padres and Nationals, which wasn’t the case for the other 2 of the “trio” … clearly Scotty was pushing for one scenario that netted him even more money once he told Hosmer to decline.
Boras hates the Dodgers because they never bend over for him & his Free Agents like the other teams do.
Where are you getting this inside information on Boras’ thought process?
Opinion.
That’s a lot of emotion about a completely made up scenario in your head
Lol
If the Padres don’t make the playoffs this year, it would be the biggest letdown in MLB in recent memory.
They act/talk like Tarzan but play like Jane
If this happens, they might tear it down in the offseason and try again in 2-3 years.
Heads roll if they don’t make the playoffs. Preller’s first.
It’s pretty hard to not make the playoffs nowadays thanks to another one of Manfred’s ridiculous rule changes.
If SD misses the playoffs it sure isn’t Preller’s fault.
Preller hasn’t done a bad job, but another big swing to come up empty will inevitably fall on him regardless.
They’ll try again in 2023 but if they don’t make the playoffs that year either then it might be time to tear it down as Joe Musgrove is their only current starter that is signed past 2023.
Especially if Machado opts out
They certainly won’t bid to sign Manaea
It wouldn’t be that much of a letdown knowing they potentially have a healthy Tatis next year.
They thought they had a healthy Tatis this year too, but the dude always seems to find a way to get hurt.
Plus, anytime a team is spending $200m and doesn’t make the playoffs, it’s beyond embarrassing. It’s pathetic. The Rays consistently make it with 1/3 of that.
It may be embarrassing to the players and coaches, but if the fans are entertained by the stars and happy dudes like Clevinger and Manaea on the team, and the owner is making $ being the lone pro sports team in the 8th largest US city? Then there’s the beach. Maybe making the playoffs every year isn’t everything, like it is for other big money teams.
Fascinating. Just when this Nats fan feels I can begin to stop obsessing over his departure…
Since the trade Joey Meneses (Bell’s replacement) has 3 HRs, to a combined 2 from Soto, Bell, and Drury!
Also, if Nationals win tonight, they’ll have more wins than Padres with Soto.
Guess we better give the Nats the “5 game World Series in August” award then. When do you want the parade?
“Angels owner Arte Moreno wouldn’t sign off on an Ohtani trade while Mike Trout is on the injured list.”
Arte Moreno continues to amaze with his shortsightedness and general stupidity.
Lesse, players come and go, managers turn over, GMs rotate, but something must be as consistent as the losing. I wonder what it could be…. Arte, any ideas?
The Angels are Arte’s team, he can do what he wants. Can’t blame him for not wanting to part with Ohtani. Arte needs to have some interesting players to please the large market television audience.
Ohtani’s value has dropped considerably because if you do trade for him it’s only for one playoff run and you won’t get a comp pick.
Angels are going to try to compete next year, if doesn’t work (it prob won’t) they are going be forced to trade him and get only half the package they would have this year. Not ideal
asset management
You’d have to think the Soto package could’ve gone to Anaheim for Ohtani. Sheeesh that would’ve been a huge acquisition of talent to pool up around Trout and would’ve given them scary potential in a year or two.
But building around Trout doesn’t mean much when he hasn’t played a full season in like 6 years.
Arte Moreno is a gigantic tool
The discussion:
Rizzo: Give us a f*k-ton of prospects;
Preller: Ok.
A Hall of Famer at 23? Isn’t that jumping the gun just a bit? There have been a LOT of guys that started strong and fell off quickly. Soto MIGHT end up as a Hall of Fame player, but to just assume he already is there is an insult to all the talents already enshrined. If he is good enough, let him earn it over the next 15 years. If he is not, then he can join the likes of Fred Lynn and Darryl Strawberry that looked destined for the Hall as well.
Just boilerplate PR from the Nats GM to keep everyone happy. Soto’s camp so that no one can insinuate the Nationals in any way soured on their evaluation of his future. And for the Padres to support why they just sent their farm to DC.
Don’t forget Andruw jones
Hey, lets hear from Preller and Rizzo on how they SCREWED OVER the Twinkies by trading them Paddock, Pagan and Medina for Rogers, Rooker & $6.6 MM.!!
Who’s Paddock?
And what does Rizzo have to do with a Padre/Twin trade?
Rizzo can comment on what he got from Preller by comparison.
E——-X——-C——-U——-U——-U——-U——-U——-S——-E ME
PADDACK !!
Happy Now ????
As a life long Twinkie fan, can you blame me for not remembering ????
If you don’t like the trades that your team makes, you can blame it on your own GM and ownership. Blaming Preller is just immature.
Conspicuous omission: any information or even speculation about what the Dodgers were prepared to give up for Soto. Whatever it was, it wasn’t as much as the haul they got from the Padres. But that’s all we know, which is kind of surprising.