As one might expect, December’s blockbuster Juan Soto trade between the Padres and Yankees took on several different permutations before the two sides finally agreed on the seven players involved. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that the Padres had interest in 17 different Yankees players before finally agreeing on a package of four pitchers (Michael King, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe) and catcher Kyle Higashioka in exchange for Soto and Trent Grisham. Clarke Schmidt and Chase Hampton were two of the other pitchers known to be considered when reports began to surface about the trade negotiations, and Heyman adds that the Yankees agreeing to include Thorpe instead of Hampton was one of the turning points in getting the deal done.
Though San Diego ended up taking a pitching-heavy mix of players, Heyman writes that the Friars also asked about such noteworthy position-player prospects as Spencer Jones, Roderick Arias, and George Lombard Jr. Jones is a top-100 prospect and the 25th overall pick of the 2022 draft, and he has already drawn lots of trade buzz early in his pro career. The Yankees have thus far balked at moving Jones, even in past talks with the Brewers and White Sox about Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease, respectively.
More from around the NL West…
- Jordan Montgomery will likely make his Diamondbacks debut on April 18, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including Alex Weiner of KTAR 92.3 radio). Because he didn’t sign until just prior to Opening Day and therefore missed Spring Training, Montgomery started his D’Backs tenure in the minors in order to get some ramp-up work under his belt. Montgomery got up to 71 pitches over 3 2/3 innings in a Triple-A start yesterday, and though he was tagged for seven unearned runs, Lovullo said Montgomery was just working out his fastball rather than worrying about on-field results. It remains to be seen if Tommy Henry or Ryne Nelson will be removed from the rotation to make way for Montgomery, though if Montgomery is eased back into action, one of Henry or Nelson could speculatively be paired with the southpaw in something of a piggyback capacity for a turn or two through the rotation.
- Blake Treinen threw to live hitters today, in the latest step of his recovery process after suffered a bruised lung over a month ago. Treinen was hit in the chest by a line drive during a Spring Training game, and he told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times) that a later MRI revealed two fractured ribs in addition to the bruised lung, though the reliever is now feeling pain-free. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that the plan is to have Treinen face live hitters twice more over the next week, and then begin a minor league rehab assignment during the week of April 22.
- Kris Bryant wasn’t in the Rockies’ lineup today after making an early exit from Saturday’s game due to back stiffness. Bryant collided with the right field wall while catching a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fly ball in the first inning Saturday, and remained in the game until being replaced in the bottom of the fourth. Bryant is considered day-to-day and manager Bud Black said he was available to pinch-hit today if necessary, though given Bryant’s lengthy injury history, any sort of health issue will naturally cause some extra concern.
Padres ownership and MLB forced the Soto trade through.
Source?
Peter Seidler did not want to trade Soto.
So Padres ownership – Peter Seidler = Soto trade.
That’s very loose, but for sake of argument, we’ll give it to you Tow. What about your assertion that “MLB forced it”?
Watch any of MLB networks coverage of the Winter Meetings and the main topic was…”when will a Soto trade get done”.
Very little was offered in the way of the possiblity of the Padres keeping Soto.
The narrative was “Peter Seidler passed, the CBT, 50 million dollar loan, debt service rule has “hindered” the Padres from spending.
Then the Padres passed on a substantial amount of minor league signings, had to squeeze whatever they could to sign Profar, would not pick up Pham or Belt.
All the Padres moves have been mostly trades as the Post Peter Seidler Padres Ownership refuses to designate any funding for moves or FA acquisitions.
Padres couldn’t afford to keep Soto in 2024.
Padres had their draft picks pushed back this year 10 slots, lost IFA money where they had to trade a prospect to recoup some of the money lost, and couldn’t go over CBA tax thresholds again cause they’d face similar or harsher penalties.
No way was Soto signing an extension with Padres or Nationals or Yankees after watching Ohtani get 700 million. He’s testing the FA market come hell or high water.
Padres are currrntly around 225-230 mill in financial commitment this year and you’re still mad about them not spending and going over cba thresholds for obvious reasons.
Padres were always working within a budget, 237 mill 1st threshold. They can’t go past that number until the 2024 season concludes in 9 months. If they do they get hit with more penalties and face similar financial constraints for 2025.
You’re counterpointing yourself, Tow. I’ll leave it at this: we’ve talked about the CBT reset. End of story.
And yet Peter Seidler was willing to exceed the CBT to make an effort to re-sign Soto.
So where is the disconnect?
White Sux guy gets it. Cheers
Extending Soto lowers aav number. You see how Ohtani got 20 years 700 mill but his aav is only 46 mill?
For padres to extend Soto they would have to have done it in a way where they pushed most of the money into deferrals to lower his aav during the duration of the contract he’s playing under.
That is something we don’t know if Soto would or would not have accepted.
No, not the end of the story.
Seidler was willing to spend in excess of the CBT to retain Soto.
10 years 700 mill*
If it came down to Soto rejecting that is fair but still the Peter Seidler ownership group was willing to offer him a contract.
Yet, there were no talks of deferrals with a Soto offer from the Padres.
Peter Seidler was willing to make it work.
towinagain – Making an effort is not the same as being able to complete an extension. No doubt that the Yankees will try too this season and fail. He’s hitting the open market.
Soto and his agent have said over and over, they would go to free agency. So your entire argument, Tow, is nonsensical
No talks that you know of. There’s a lot of assumptions there. The subject may have come up and been dismissed out of hand by Boras and Co. You don’t know. All you have to go upon is publicly released information, conjecture, and conspiracy theories here. No real facts. One could just as easily say that Soto was never staying because he is testing free agency come hell or high water. The right bid that blows him away might change that… but probably not. Boras would use that offer as a starting point for FA negotiations.
Either way or any way .. SD traded Soto because they wanted to get something for him when his trade value was high and can hope they still have a chance to resign him in FA 2024-2025. SD made the right move for its future given the media company issues and the luxury tax thresholds. Did they get fair value in return? Only time will tell
So who is giving Soto the money?
The answer is a small, rich and familiar group of candidates. The list starts with the Mets. Then the Cubs. The Dodgers could use an OFer. The Jays might take a swing at him. And that leaves the incumbent team, The Yankees. My gut is that if the Yanks win the WS this year, Hal will offer him $50M for 10. Add in the enormous opportunities available in NYC and he easily doubles his income. So, $100M per year give or take and he’s on his way to Billionaire status. Can he make that kind of endorsement coin in Seattle or Texas or Atlanta? Nah. And if Steve Cohen decides to throw his filthy lucre on the table? I say Hal channels his inner George and bids him up. If it goes to $60M? Soto is a Met. And Cohen is a fool.
Depends on the ultimate price, but I could see some dark horse candidates in there too, Empire. Orioles, Padres, Giants come to mind… suffice to say, I believe Peter Seidler *tried* to extend him, but with the FA writing in the wall then Preller moved him. It will be an exciting offseason!
Suck – There’s also the little issue of the Padres losing $116M last year. The spending was unsustainable, a brief change in financial approach because Pete thought he was in his final days. The spending was never meant to be a longterm approach.
The principal reason the Padres were compelled to cut payroll and entertain offers for Soto was thus:
When Blue Diamond Sports (Bally Sports) chose to give up their media rights deal in the face of a bankruptcy proceeding, it created a significant revenue shortfall for the Padres. The media rights money was enough that is served as a payroll footing for most of the 40-man roster aside from the mega-deals for Machado, Hosmer, Soto, Bogaerts and Tatis. Now with that money evaporated, the payroll pot shrinks.
Had Peter Seidler not passed away, it’s possible he would have found ways to keep the revenue streams consistent while awaiting the next media rights deal. But with him gone, the team needed to err on the side of caution after having to take on a bridge loan to meet payroll obligations as the BSSD money ran out.
This is also why a number of other mid-market teams in similar situations also sat out most of the bidding for higher-profile free agents this past off-season. From a simple matter of viewership, the big market teams in LA, NY and the Noetheast will be the last to feel the pinch as the RSNs will try to keep their media rights deals in place as long as they can so they have the audiences to sustain their programming.
Source – the voices in his head
No, simply the facts speak for themselves 😉
So what your saying is he said something so he could get more people to buy/keep season tickets with no real intention of keeping said promise. With one year out from free agency and being a boras client that would hands down be the top free agent as a generational talent, there was no way in heck Soto was signing an extension without being paid as much as ohtani. Think there was a better chance of Kaepernick being a starting qb in the nfl than Soto signing an extension. Seidler knew that and played his cards that way to get multiple prospects instead of one comp pick later.
Yes facts speak for themselves and so do actions. Seidler was not spending money even after he traded Soto. By your own admission on near every minor league signing, “how are we not signing xxx player” Even their own big addition was relatively small payroll dollars in the trade for Cease.
I see no facts other than hearsay and lip service to the fans. Its like a player saying i want to be with xxx team for life i cant play anywhere else (until they get a better off elsewhere). Cant get them endorsements if you seen as a bad guy.
Who knows what kind of talk happens behind the scenes but spending a full season hitting in front of Judge with YS as your home field is as about as good as it gets for his walk year.
Great for Soto. Tips cap to the Yankees.
MLB does not care about the mid market Padres as evidenced to the pressure MLB put on a very willing Post Peter Siedler ownership group to trade Juan Soto.
Doubling down on the stupid, eh?
So the 29 others forced the Padres to trade Soto? What?!
@MLBFanatic
Yep. All 29 of them. That’s how deep the anti-San Diego bias goes.
(I am joking.)
It’s so weird to me. He’s like the LGFMets version of the Padres. There’s never anything constructive which comes out of them. Why even bother being a fan if you hate your team so much?
And spending seems more important to him than actual winning.
CHW won the Juan Soto trade.
A pitcher with #4 starter upside who hasn’t made his ML debut yet? Dkbt
#4 upside? More like 3-4 FLOOR with room to improve with even modest FB velo improvement.
2nd rounder
Top 50-ish prospect
15/2 K/W in two starts in AA this year.
The Nationals won the Soto trade
For that matter, so did the entire NLW.
Hopefully Treinen replaces Vesnia
Kris Bryant and his .149 batting average. Expect him to be out at least a month.
Ohtani’s “interpreter” bet Treinen had 3 broken ribs
Meh…
The feeling’s mutual.
Good…
Good? I was thinking, meh…
Either or…