Official: Juan Soto to San Diego

Josh Bell will also be going to San Diego for an unknown prospect package. Tweets inside.

---

Breaking News Tweet:

---

What's in the Deal?

The Simple Breakdown:

• Juan Soto and Josh Bell are going to be a San Diego Padres

• Hosmer was in original deal, but said "No" to Washington

  • Hosmer is now headed to Boston; San Diego will cover most of contract

• Deal is still official between SD and WSH, but will likely change a little bit

• Luke Voit took the place of Eric Hosmer in the trade

---

Trade Updates:

• I have now seen that Eric Hosmer may be a part of the package going back to Washington DC...but only IF he agrees to go there. The Nationals were part of his 10-team "no-trade" clause for 2022 (this can change year-to-year about which teams are included or not), so if he says no that will drastically change the prospects going back to Washington.

• Here is a link to the BaseballTradeValues.com opinion on the deal. It appears that the Padres just made one heck of a deal. Credit on them for getting the Nationals to also (maybe) take on Hosmer- especially if that becomes a larger commitment to him in order to get him to waive the no-trade clause. If you don't want to click here are the values:

  • San Diego Gets: Juan Soto (+165.6 MTV) and Josh Bell (+5.7 MTV) = Total of +171.30 MTV

  • Washington Gets: C.J. Abrams (+47.1 MTV), Robert Hassell III (+38.7 MTV), MacKenzie Gore (+29.6 MTV), James Wood (+25.6 MTV), Jarlin Susana (+2.5 MTV), and Eric Hosmer (-35.2 MTV) = Total of +108.30 MTV

• UPDATE: Eric Hosmer has said NO to going to Washington. HOWEVER, this has not nixed the deal. He MAY be headed to somewhere else besides San Diego (in a 3-team trade), he may still get traded to Washington with an incentive added on his deal. Maybe he stays in San Diego! The intrigue is nuts!

-------------------------

Fast Reaction/Thoughts from Ethan:

I don't have a lot of time to write something incredible detailed, so here are a collection of thoughts I have from the last couple of days following the Juan Soto trade:

• Good on the San Diego Padres. While this is a lot to pay (in terms of prospects), this is not a complete "emptying the farm". Worst comes to worst for them, they can trade Juan Soto at the 2023 trade deadline (or even 2024) and get back another considerable prospect package. Soto will still be incredibly valuable on the trade market these next few years.

• Remember, San Diego fell apart through the end of last year and they need to push to make sure it doesn't happen again. Juan Soto does that for them. Add in Josh Hader and the Padres are serious.

• Speaking of, thank goodness Juan Soto is staying in the National League. The odds that the Padres and Soto meet the Yankees in the World Series is slim, so the fact that Yankees did not win-out for getting the trade will likely not directly hurt them.

• Also- as I have heard from our own Andy Singer- apparently the Yankees had offered the Washington Nationals a package headlined by Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez and they immediately dismissed the deal. Hey, I can't blame the Yankees if they tried and offered just about the best assets they could.

• Now we all have to root for Juan Soto to become a free agent after the 2024 season. I'm still INCREDIBLY high on him. At this time, I cannot envision a scenario where in two years time I'd still be willing to offer him a record-breaking free agent contract. Maybe not for 15 years, but let's really start to consider a 13-Year/$425 Million ($32.7M AAV) contract for the young superstar. Remember, he'll still only be entering his age-25 season in 2025!

• This is the best scenario for Aaron Judge's future market and his prospects of coming back to New York on a huge deal. The Yankees now don't have a built-in fallback option with another superstar. You have to think he's privately celebrating this trade. (And I don't blame him.)

• Can you imagine the pressure on Hosmer right now? Apparently when Josh Beckett was traded in the Red Sox-Dodgers blockbuster from a few years ago he also had a no-trade clause and reached out to every player in the deal to see if they were in favor of the trade or not. That's an awesome story to hear (good on Beckett!) and I wonder if Hosmer will do the same. Here is a tweet with that story.

• By the way, did you all see that Fernando Alonso is going to drive with Aston Martin next year to replace Sebastian Vettel (who is retiring after the season)? And Oscar Piastri may be leaving Alpine as well for McLaren! What a flub by Otmar Szafnauer...oh, wait. Wrong breaking news. (For those unaware, I also follow Formula One and this is some other major major news.)