Padres News: Insider Believes Juan Soto’s Future With Friars Affected By Shohei Ohtani

Dennis Lin warns Padres to keep an eye out for Ohtani during their Soto negotiations.

With Manny Machado locked and loaded with the San Diego Padres for the rest of his career, that leaves Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani as the biggest possible free agent this coming offseason. Multiple franchises will be gathering all the dollar bills they have and throwing them at the MLB's number one ranked player.

Among other teams, your Friars have been heavily linked to Ohtani following these past seasons of heavy spending. He is likely to make history with this next contract and there are few owners outside of Peter Seidler that would be willing to commit such money to their roster. However, San Diego's front office has other fish to fry primarily in the name of Juan Soto. 

The star outfielder is the lone piece of a current Padres squad that has seen majority of their top guys get taken care of already. His stats were notably down in his few months with the Friars last season but he enters this year with more time under his belt and team manager Bob Melvin seems excited to showcase him more.

However, MLB insider Dennis Lin joined The Darren Smith show and highlighted Shohei Ohtani's current situation as a possible reason that Soto hasn't received an extension from the Padres just yet.

"How aggressive do you want to be with Soto when the biggest fish ever is lurking out there?"@dennistlin talked #Padres, Aaron Judge & Peter Seidler's big involvement with @DSmithShowhttps://t.co/7Wso5eys5w pic.twitter.com/u3kjzuLqmn

— Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) March 10, 2023

"That brings another question as well," said Lin. "How aggressive do you want to be with Juan Soto knowing that the biggest fish on the market, or maybe the biggest fish ever, is still lurking out there?"

Both Soto and Ohtani are two of the best players in the MLB. They are both still in their 20's and have long careers ahead of them. If Soto performs this season the way he as in past years, he will get paid by someone even if the Padres opt to go after the Angels pitcher.