Think back to August 2nd, 2022. Do you remember where you were when you got the news? I certainly do. It was a day that will forever live in infamy among fans of the Washington Nationals, and it was the day that the team decided that the best move for the franchise was to deal superstar outfielder Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres for an incredible haul that included many current and future assets to the club in CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood, Robert Hassell III, and Jarlin Susana.
While the trade indicated that Nationals fans were headed for a long rebuild before getting to experience winning baseball again, one that the club is still mired in the moment after back to back seasons with just 71 wins, Soto was off to San Diego, where he would spend the next 16 months before being dealt again to the New York Yankees, where he was able to get back to the World Series.
Now, fresh off of signing the biggest contract in the history of the sport with the division rival New York Mets, Soto recently appeared on the Abriendo Podcast, where he made some claims that are sure to have Nationals fans like myself feeling some mixed emotions.
Speaking about his departure from the Washington Nationals, Soto said: "If the Nationals had put together a competitive team, I would have signed the contract extension for less than what they offered me ($440 million)." which, for what it's worth, is a lot easier to say when you have just been paid $765 million to play a children's game.
Look, obviously hindsight is 20/20, as the old saying goes, but I just am not 100% positive in how truthful Soto was being in this case. Obviously, that 2022 team was not great, in fact that team was one of the worst teams we have seen since the early days of the Nationals, and their 55-107 record was pretty reflective of how poorly that team was constructed.
The pitching on that team was absolutely abysmal, and the lineup, outside of Josh Bell and Soto, was atrocious as well. I can certainly understand Soto using this as his reasoning for not wanting to sign the extension, but when your agent is Scott Boras, who is notorious for having his clients hit free agency no matter what in order to maximize his client's earnings, was he ever going to sign the deal beforehand? I do not think so, at all.
While delusional Nationals fans like myself believed that the team could re-sign him this past offseason, it does not appear as if anything serious ever materialized, despite the team having A LOT more to offer now than they did previously. I gave the Nationals around a 2% chance of being able to bring him back at the onset of free agency, and I do not think that the Lerner's would have paid as much as the Mets did. However, it is curious to wonder why if Soto loved DC as much as he claimed, why he would not at least remotely entertain the possibility of coming back to the organization that had gotten astronomically better since he left? To me, it does not add up, especially since Soto signed with the Mets for less money than he had been offered by other teams, and I feel pretty confident that he was always going to hit free agency no matter what.
If true, it is obviously a gut punch to us Nationals fans who are patiently awaiting the team to ascend to relevance again, but the reality of the situation is that Soto would have been a part of some pretty bad teams for the next few years, as the organization had one of the worst farm systems in the sport until he was dealt. That trade changed the future outlook of the organization for years to come, and it would be pretty hard to argue that it was not for the better at this point.
I will always love Juan Soto and all that he did for the Washington Nationals organization, but I am not buying that he would have signed the extension if the team was better. Do you agree? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.