By Tim Britton, Grant Brisbee and Stephen J. Nesbitt
The replacement
Yankees acquired: Juan Soto, OF, Trent Grisham, OF
Padres get: Michael King, RHP; Drew Thorpe, RHP; Johnny Brito, RHP; Randy Vasquez, RHP; and Kyle Higashioka, C
Tim Britton: Every team would be better if it added Juan Soto. But perhaps no team needs Soto more than the Yankees.
That’s not just for narrative reasons — though countering your worst season in three decades by adding one of the sport’s best hitters helps in that regard. But in 2023, only two teams have seen worse production from their left-handed hitters than the Yankees. It probably follows that only one team has given fewer plate appearances to lefties than New York. What’s bad for any team is even worse for one that plays in a ballpark built to accommodate southpaw sluggers.
The Yankees rank 26th in the majors in OPS from their outfield, and that’s despite the presence of Aaron Judge. Take him out of the calculation, and New York outfielders are slashing .214/.276/.360 for a .636 OPS. So yes, even if it costs you a great pitching prospect and a promising big-league arm, you’ll do what it takes to add Soto’s career .946 OPS to that group. You add his otherworldly eye, the power to play in the Bronx and the versatility he brings to a lineup that has been quiet the last few years. He is Juan Soto.
For San Diego, part of trading for Soto when they did was knowing, if things went south, they could try to recoup some of the expected cost by moving him earlier than free agency. agency. They got an NLCS appearance from the trade and some legit talent back, but, well, things went south financially. It’s hard to spin the Soto trade as a positive.
Yankees score: A
Father grade: C
Give Brisbee: Juan Soto is on a Hall of Fame path. Check that, he’s on a path to being an inner-circle Hall of Famer, up there with the greatest. If you want to push that back, remember that dude just turned 25. Twenty-five years ollllllld. There are four players who are 25 or older MLB’s top 100 prospect list.
It’s not just a curiosity, though. If you’re looking at a guy hitting free agency in the prime of a very, very special career, wouldn’t you want 10 months where you’re the only team in baseball who can talk to him about an extension? That’s not just planting seeds, but it’s watering them and putting them under a halogen lamp. People will complain that the Yankees are giving away a lot of talent for one-year rentals, especially when it comes to making the major-league in 2024, but that’s not all. This is a trial run. See how nice Yankees fans are? See how perfectly the short porch on the right helps you? Don’t you want to hang out here for 14 more years?
My only quibble with all the Yankees for Soto is that it forces Aaron Judge to center field, which isn’t ideal for a big 30-something coming off a toe injury, but that’s more Alex Verdugo’s fault , indeed. Juan Soto is with the Yankees. That is something to celebrate.
Juan Soto is not with the Padres. I understand why, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t depressing. They need a weapon to make up for some of their losses in free agency, and they need to cut payroll because it appears they’re on a spender bender, and it’s not sustainable.
That’s not to say it isn’t tiring. They’re missing a guy who played 162 games for them last year and put up a .410 on-base percentage, .930 OPS and 158 OPS+. They need to replace pitchers, yes, but how do you replace that? They still have a lot of good players, but they are already below the league average in runs scored per game. Losing 162 games of on-base wizardry will be nearly impossible to recover from.
Michael King will immediately help the Padres pitching staff. (Eric Canha / USA TODAY)
There is talent coming back, to be clear. Michael King will help immediately. Drew Thorpe looks like a fast mover. Randy Vásquez has a shiny ERA in the majors and a dusty FIP, and he’s struggled with his control in the minors, but he should help at some point in the near future.
There’s plenty of hope the other way, though, so it’s hard to love the Padres’ outlook.
Yankees: A+
Fathers: C+
Stephen J. Nesbitt: The last left-handed (or switch) hitters with a .400 OBP over a full season for the Yankees were Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu. It’s been 16 years since they last did this.
And the last Yankees lefties with a 140 OPS+ over a full season are Robinson Canó, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira. It’s been a decade since they last did this.
Soto has never had a sub-.400 OBP or 140 OPS+ season. Not in the majors. Not to minors. Probably not as a sweet-swingin’ kid back in Santo Domingo, either! In today’s game, Soto is in a class of his own as a hitter. Plus eyes, plus contact, plus power. He has a World Series ring, a Home Run Derby trophy, a batting title, but he looks proudest when he spits at a ball inches from the plate. His expertise meshes well with the Yanks’ biggest needs. Soto will spend 2024 spraying baseballs around Yankee Stadium and parking them on the short porch, joining forces with Judge to form the ultimate one-two punch of power and patience.
Grisham isn’t moving the needle offensively, but he does give the Yankees a fourth outfielder who can play center while they await the return of Jasson Dominguez.
The next question, of course, is whether they will be together for just one season. If only that, the Yankees had better make it count. Their first order of business is to bolster the rest of the roster — starting with a rotation that just lost a bunch of depth in this trade — and then turn their attention to whether they can keep Soto in Bronx long term.
For the Padres, a comeback is a comeback. That’s fine, if you’ve accepted the position that the Padres need to move Soto and his expected $33 million salary sooner. But this is not bowling to you. Michael King has been really good at times, and even better lately, but he’s also 28, two years from free agency, and he’s yet to hold down a full starter’s job in the majors. Thorpe, a 2022 second-rounder, is a promising prospect with significant upside as a starter. He is coming off an outstanding season — a 2.52 ERA between High A and Double A — and was named MLB Pipeline’s Pitching Prospect of the Year. However, the Padres aren’t bringing in any can’t-miss guys here. The only sure thing here is that the man is heading in the opposite direction.
Before the trade, the Padres’ projected 2024 rotation featured Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and then a steep drop-off. Between King, Thorpe, Brito and Vazquez they will patch up the back of their rotation for next season and solidify things for the future. That’s great. But in general, you’re not going to send a bat the size of Soto and walk away feeling like a winner.
Yankees: A
Fathers: B-
(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
