Yankees Trade for Juan Soto in Seven-Player Deal
One of the league’s most gifted hitters, 25-year-old Juan Soto has been traded for the second time in 17 months. This time, the San Diego Padres traded Soto, and outfielder Trent Grisham to the New York Yankees for right-handed pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, and Randy Vasquez, as well as catcher Kyle Higashioka, and prospect starting pitcher Drew Thorpe. On Tuesday, the Yankees pulled off an additional trade with their biggest rivals, the Boston Red Sox. New York received Alex Verdugo in exchange for three pitchers. After the 2024 season, both Verdugo and Soto will be free agents, the Bronx Bombers would be thrilled if they could get Soto to stay long-term.
Last season, Juan Soto played in all 162 games, and in 568 at-bats he recorded 156 hits, 35 home runs, 109 RBIs, and 12 stolen bases with a batting average of .275. In six seasons in the majors, Juan has collected 768 hits, 160 home runs, and 483 RBIs. Soto is now in the Yankees outfield mix along with Verdugo, Grisham, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton, although New York will probably have Judge or Stanton as the designated hitter in most games during the 2024 season. San Diego’s initial plan was to try and win a championship with a star-studded lineup consisting of Soto, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Manny Machado. They couldn’t afford to bring back Soto, after a disappointing 2023 season where the Padres had the highest payroll in the league and yet could not reach the postseason.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller said, “It's very difficult to make a deal where you're trading a player the caliber of Juan Soto, but if we did that, we wanted to make sure we shored up a bunch of needs. We were able to get some depth with quality." In Soto’s young career, he’s already won four Silver Slugger Awards and a World Series championship in 2019 with the Washington Nationals. The Yankees will hope to turn things around after a rough 2023 season, and now with Soto have a chance for a run at the postseason once more. Can the New York Yankees make the postseason?
