Padres GM AJ Preller Addresses Juan Soto Trade Rumors
The trade speculation surrounding San Diego Padres star outfielder Juan Soto is almost a daily occurrence now, and we still don't have any clear answers. The team has been contemplating moving him this offseason before he enters the final year of his contract.
Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller addressed the Soto rumors that have been going around.
“A player like that is always in your plans,” Preller said. “Obviously that’s the offseason. We’ll get to the next couple of weeks and continue conversations with (agent Scott Boras) and Juan and get a sense of where he’s at, for what it means down the road for San Diego in terms of a contract. And then also, we understand the value of Juan playing for us next year on a contract year. So having his bat in the lineup is important."
This could just be front office speak, but it sure sounds like Soto isn't going anywhere, at least right now. It feels like the team may actually keep him into the new year, and see what happens at the trade deadline.
While it makes sense for their 2024 season to have Soto on the roster, they do run risks by doing so. He could get hurt before the trade deadline or have a down start to the year. Both of these would decrease his value around the league, especially on an expiring deal.
But Preller did say that they are always listening, hinting that a trade could still happen.
"At the end of the day, you’re always, from an offseason standpoint, you’ll listen and we’ll listen, but we think our position player team is very strong. We’d like to keep that position player team together. We also understand that we want to add some pitching to the group we currently have.”
After his comments, we still don't know much of anything. It was a lot of posturing on the part of Preller, and I wouldn't have expected anything less.
The Padres have a lot of work to do this offseason, and now that they have hired their manager, they can begin. It's a critical winter for the franchise as they look to get back into playoff contention.
