The Washington Nationals may not trade Juan Soto before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, but a trade seems inevitable. Soto rejected three contract offers from the Nationals since November, including a record-setting offer of $440 million over 15 years.
Soto says the contract situation is out of his hands. However, he is flustered about the leaks surrounding talks and the subsequent trade rumors. Still, the 23-year old has said the right things about wanting to stay with the Nationals.
But his agent, Scott Boras, hasn’t been as careful with his comments. In fact, his latest comments may shine the true light on his thinking for Soto.
“He’s at the top, he is the best of the best, nobody in his first four years has had the success that he has had at that age, he is a great value for any franchise. We’ll see which team will pay what he is worth,” Boras said per Abriendo el Juego of KISS 94.9 in Santo Domingo.
The key phrase is “We’ll see which team will pay what he is worth.”
Soto is not a free agent. He won’t be until after the 2024 season. Thus, Boras’ comments strongly suggest he’ll play out the situation until Soto is a free agent and able to sign with any team.
If Soto hits the free agent market, he could possibly fetch a $500 million — at his preferred annual average value.
Boras is right in the fact it’s hard to argue anyone else has had a better start to their baseball career. Soto was runner-up at the age 19 for NL Rookie of the Year. At 20, he had career highs of 34 home runs and 110 RBIs as a key contributor in the Nationals winning the 2019 World Series. At 21, he became the youngest NL batting champion. Last season at age 22, he hit .313 with 29 home runs while drawing an MLB-leading 145 walks.
Monday night, he became the second-youngest Home Run Derby champion.
All of his accomplishments before his 24th birthday. He is the epitome of a young legend. Not many will argue with his accolades and young age, that he deserves to be the highest-paid position player in MLB history.
However, why can’t the Nationals give him that. The problem may be the fact, Boras hasn’t presented a counter offer. It’s a tactic he is accustomed to doing. He loves to take his young clients into free agency to fetch their market.
Boras did this with Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon. Both players were drafted by and came up the system with the Nationals. Both players left in free agency in back-to-back offseasons.
Boras’ latest comments could be strategic to get the Nationals to fork over the contract Soto wants. Yet, without presenting a benchmark or counter offer, the Nationals are essentially competing with themselves.
It’s possible Boras is just driving up the price to use for his own benchmark when Soto is free to talk to other teams two years from now.
All factors that Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and ownership must consider in deciding if they should just move on and trade Soto to get a deserving package in return before he walks away.
