Juan Soto is now a member of the San Diego Padres.
He and teammate Josh Bell were shipped out west by the Washington Nationals, who have no realistic hope of contending anytime soon, while the Padres look to be World Series favorites.
There was a ton of speculation that Soto could end up with the St. Louis Cardinals.
However, all of that has been put to rest with this recent deal.
Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman doesn’t seem to upset about it, as it’s one less obstacle he’ll have to face when pitching against the Cubs’ NL Central rivals.
On Twitter, he expressed his relief that Soto is not a Cardinal.
I was hoping Soto went to the Cardinals so I would have to pitch against him in the division…said absolutely no one ever. Lol 😂
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) August 2, 2022
Stroman Relieved Soto Isn’t A Cardinal
Any pitcher would be glad not to face Soto, especially in the NL West.
Soto is going to be on pitchers’ minds out in that division.
But Stroman lucked out.
He won’t have to face Soto on a regular basis for some time, depending on how everything plays out with his contract and Soto’s.
He will still have to deal with Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, however.
But it would be a million times worse for him if he was forced to face Soto in addition to Goldschmidt and Arenado.
Luckily for him, that isn’t the case.
Clearly, he’s happy about that, having faced Soto many times before during his stay with the New York Mets.
Signing with the Cubs gave him an opportunity to get away from Soto and that appears to have worked out for him, even with Soto now being traded.
Soto will instead join Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the Padres lineup, which now looks to be the best lineup in all of baseball.
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