After weeks of rumors and speculation, the Yankees have their guy.
Juan Soto is heading to the Bronx, the team announced on Wednesday. The deal has the Yankees acquiring Trent Grisham while caving to San Diego’s demands for Michael King and pitching prospect Drew Thorpe. The Yankees are also sending young right-handers Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez and veteran catcher Kyle Higashioka to the Padres, who were desperate to add arms and shed payroll after enduring a disappointing season.
A.J. Preller, San Diego’s president of baseball operations and general manager, would have had trouble topping the Yankees’ offer elsewhere. Still, a Padres source said, “We got everything we wanted from them.”
Regardless, the Yankees needed Soto after suffering a similarly difficult year, which Brian Cashman previously called a “disaster.” Now, after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016 thanks in part to a deficient offense, Cashman has landed the biggest bat on the market.
“He’s as good of an offensive player as there is. He’s a machine offensively,” Aaron Boone said before the trade. “Has accomplished a ton already at a young age. Durable, has been a central figure on a world championship team. Comes with a lot of fanfare and has been one of the rock-solid performers in our sport on the offensive side of the ball year in and year out.”
Added Cashman before the trade: “I mean, he’s a transformational bat. He’s one of the best hitters in the game. He’s impact, period.”
Already on a Hall of Fame track at age 25, Soto is a lifetime .284/.421/.524 hitter with 160 homers and 483 RBI. A champ with the Nationals in 2019, the three-time All-Star slashed .275/.410/.519 with 35 homers and 109 RBI for the Padres in 2023.
Soto’s left-handed swing should work wonders in Yankee Stadium, where he already has a 1.219 OPS with four homers over seven games. Now the Dominican slugger will get a chance to inflate those numbers. The Yankees, meanwhile, have the feared port-side bat that they always seem to be missing.
“Anytime you have a 1.200 or 1.300 OPS anywhere, you enjoy it,” Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, said before the trade. “And the good thing for Juan Soto is he does that at a number of ballparks, but Yankee Stadium is one of them if my memory serves me correct.
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“I don’t know if it’s his favorite, but when you’re Juan Soto, you kind of show up and every ballpark’s a favorite. But I know he hits well there.”
Soto also has a habit of staying healthy, as he has averaged 155 games played the last three years. That includes suiting up for all 162 this past season.
The Yankees paid a steep price for their new superstar, who is only under contract for the 2024 season. Soto is projected to make $33 million in arbitration this winter. As a Boras client, he is expected to test free agency next offseason after his rejection of a 15-year, $440 million extension offer from the Nationals sparked a trade to San Diego two seasons ago.
Asked if Soto would be open to an extension once traded, Boras said that they haven’t discussed that possibility.
While Soto’s bat more than makes up for his glove, he is considered a poor defender in the outfield. He has played left and right in his career.
The Yankees just traded for another lefty-hitting corner outfielder, Alex Verdugo, and Aaron Boone said that he would be comfortable with Aaron Judge as his everyday centerfielder before the Soto trade. Right field is the easiest ground to cover at Yankee Stadium; Soto playing there makes plenty of sense, depending on the Yankees’ lineup on any given day.
Grisham, 27, can also help in centerfield. A talented defender, he’s been below league average at the plate the last two years, hitting .191/.300/.347. However, Grisham has a little pop, as he totaled 30 homers and 103 RBI over that span.
A Burleson, Texas native, Grisham hits lefties better than righties despite swinging from the left side of the plate. That could make for a strong platoon with Verdugo.
In 2023, Grisham slashed .256/.362/.430 against southpaws and .178/.298/.325 against righties. Verdugo hit .220/.311/.298 vs. lefties and .279/.329/.464 vs. righties.
Grisham is projected to make $4.9 million in arbitration this winter. He won’t be a free agent until 2026.
Meanwhile, the Padres came away with King, the right-hander they desired after he went from a dominating reliever to a tantalizing starter over the final month of the 2023 season. The 28-year-old logged a 1.88 ERA with 48 strikeouts over his final eight starts and 38.1 innings.
King, who was still building up at the start of that stretch, went at least five innings in four of his last six starts.
“After the year we’ve had, there’d be very few untouchables,” Cashman said when asked about King. “But obviously we value Michael King a lot. He’s been a very good player for us. He makes us better by having him here.”
Thorpe, meanwhile, was considered the Yankees’ fifth-best prospect by MLB.com. Another righty, he split this past season between High-A and Double-A, logging a 2.52 ERA and 182 strikeouts over 23 starts and 139.1 innings.
“He had a great year,” Boone said Tuesday. “He’s got a great changeup. That word pitchability, he has it. He’s not overpowering with his fastball, but it’s a special changeup. The fastball plays up because of his pitchability. And he’s put together a really, really strong year.”
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Brito and Vásquez, both 25, arrived on the major league scene sooner than expected in 2023, as injuries decimated the Yankees rotation. The duo also pitched in relief, where Brito had more success.
Brito had a 4.28 ERA over 90.1 innings, while Vásquez posted a 2.87 mark over 37.2 innings.
A seven-year veteran, Higashioka was the Yankees’ longest-tenured player. The franchise used a seventh-round pick on the Huntington Beach, Calif. native in 2008, and he debuted in 2017 as a 26-year-old after nearly a decade in the minors.
But the Yankees have a ton of catching depth, and Higashioka, 33, always figured to be an odd man out.
“I don’t really think about it too much,” Higashioka said at the end of the season when asked about possibly playing his last game for the Yankees. “In this position, I can’t, just because we’re still playing. But I’ve been with this organization for half my life. So eventually, obviously, you either retire or you get traded or whatever. It’s not gonna last forever.”
Always a backup or platoon catcher with the Yankees, the glove-first Higashioka played in a career-high 92 games in 2023. A career .210 hitter, he also mashed 10 homers for the third season in a row.
With Soto on the way, the Yankees can now turn their full attention to Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who would more than ease the pain of parting with King. The Bombers have steep competition for the coveted right-hander, but they are scheduled to meet with Yamamoto next week, per multiple reports.
“He’s gonna be a really successful pitcher anywhere he pitches on the planet,” said Cashman, who saw Yamamoto throw a no-hitter in Japan back in September. “We were impressed. There’s reasons we send our pro scouts over and we have a scout on the ground over there to make sure that we don’t miss out on any opportunities that might present themselves. And he’s a tremendous opportunity for anybody. I’ll just leave it at that, but a very impressive and talented player.”
