we are welcomed back by baseball
Insider and the host of leadoff
spot on MLB network radio steve
phillips and it has been a busy
day, what a day steve your
reaction to the soto to san
Diego trade.
It is a monster trade.
I mean, I have never seen this
level of talent, this amount of
talent changing hands in one
Diehl and one soto is a terrific
player.
He's young, it's going to be
three playoff runs of control
for the Padres this year and
then obviously had control for
two more seasons and a big bat
and I mean, I can understand the
trade from both sides certainly
for the Padres they're bringing
in soto, he's going to have an
impact in that lineup with
Fernando Tatis Jr.
manny machado And on the other
side of it for the Washington
nationals, they got a huge
return on this Diehl and so
they're bringing back
extraordinary talent to be able
to rebuild and quickly start to
turn things around there as
these young guys develop and
here's the reality AJ Preller
had to make this deal if he had
lost out to the Dodgers again
like he did last year and the
max Scherzer front where they
ended up with Scheurwater and
trade Toerner it just, he
wouldn't have recovered from it.
And so I think Mike Rizzo in DC
had to know that he could keep
asking and AJ Preller would keep
saying yes and he ended up
making the deal of certainly of
the century to be able to bring
back that kind of return.
Yeah, Mike Rizzo the talk of the
town right now.
AJ Preller so far the star of
this.
MLB trade deadline and steve
this just coming down from Mark
fine sand that Eric Hosmer has
in fact declined to be traded,
said no to being traded but the
deal is still happening.
So now san Diego has to figure
out what to do with Eric Hosmer
and that three year $39 million
salary your take.
Yeah, I think that first of all
, when he was including the deal
, he had no trade clause.
I'm thinking why would he
approve this?
Want to leave the first place
Padres where I can live in SAn
Diego and go to Dc no offense to
D.C. But I mean they're last
place team.
Why would he ever approved the
deal in the first place and he
earned the right to reject that
trade.
Now, you know, they're going to
have to manage egos, they're
also going to try to figure out
how they're going to manage a
roster that you know, will now
have Soto.
But it also ends up with josh
Bell being there to and again, a
big part of this trade bringing
josh bell and has had a terrific
season a switch hitter with
power from both sides and
Luke Voit And so they've got a
lot of first baseman and and DHS
and so I think it's going to be
a managing job no question and I
don't know where they're going
to find an outlet.
They've tried in the past to
move both Wil Myers and eric
Hosmer without being able to do
it, but now they've got to
manage Eric Hosmer feelings and
he's a classy guy, he's a first
class teammate, I think he'll be
ok, but playing time and
feelings are going to be
something that, you know, bob
Melvin is gonna end up having to
manage their, is this just a
situation steve where you just
eat the contract and you let him
go, you know, I don't think so,
I think there's there's still
value for Eric Hosmer So I would
think they're going to try to do
everything they can to spend a
deal here right now.
I would hope that they don't do
that, I don't know that that's
the right Meccage the right
thing to do and for Eric Hosmer
there's got to be an outlet.
Look if you're going to eat the
whole thing, can you find
somebody who will pay him five
million a year moving forward?
Probably.
So they've got to be scrambling
right now, you know, spending
some time with other team just
seeing if they can't find an
outlet for him now.
The other factor in all of this
is where the money comes from,
the Padres, we kept hearing that
they were right up against the
competitive balance tax
threshold.
That AJ Pollock have been told
not to go over there, blowing
through that thing right now and
and paying dividends and the
other thing, remember there a
wild card team and they better
hope that there the first wild
card team because if they're not
, they're going to likely, as
things stand now, play a three
game series in Atlanta in the
wildcard round.
And so they don't even get a
home series with juan soto as
part of this mix, unless they
start to play better and past
the Atlanta Braves or the Matz
or whoever else would be the
first wild card team.