The Juan Soto deal is nearly official.
The San Diego Padres are close to acquiring both him and first baseman Josh Bell from the Washington Nationals.
However, this deal was not made without a little bit of drama.
Eric Hosmer was originally set to go back to Washington in the deal, but the Nationals are one of the teams on his no-trade list.
It seemed as if the deal hinged on whether or not Hosmer would accept a trade to the Nationals.
According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the deal is not in any danger of not getting done.
Hosmer simply will not be part of the deal, but Feinsand mentioned on Twitter that the Padres have limited time to figure out what to do about their disgruntled first baseman.
Eric Hosmer rejected the trade to Washington and will not be part of the Soto deal, per source. Now the Padres have less than five hours to figure out what to do with Hosmer, who is owed $39 million from 2023-25.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) August 2, 2022
Drama In San Diego
This is a situation full of drama.
The Padres still are going to land Soto and Bell, but they now have an unhappy camper on their hands in Hosmer.
He is owed $39 million from 2023-25.
He is in the final three years of the eight-year deal he signed with the Padres before the 2018 season.
That’s a lot of money they owe him, and it’s going to cost them a fortune if they plan on extending Soto for the remainder of his career.
Soto is a free agent after the 2025 season, as is Hosmer, so that doesn’t mean that they can’t re-sign Soto.
It just means that for now, they’re on the hook for $39 million and they have to figure out something to do with Hosmer, since he does not want to go to the Nationals.
We’ll see if the Padres can figure something out for Hosmer or if they’ll be stuck with him for the next few years.
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