Guardians, Rays Among Possible Trade Destinations for Juan Soto

With the trade deadline fast approaching, a slew of teams have emerged as potential landing spots for the superstar outfielder.

The MLB trade deadline is just one week away, and though a flurry of moves are sure to develop in the coming days, there’s one name looming large over the hot stove proceedings: Juan Soto.

The Nationals superstar outfielder is easily the biggest name on the proverbial trading block, and sources told SI’s Tom Verducci the expectation is that the two-time All-Star is expected to be dealt in the immediate future.

Who’s on the list of teams that could push to acquire the 23-year-old? Nearly everybody, include some names you might not expect to be in the mix for such a blockbuster deal. From Verducci:

In addition to the trade package, Soto will cost a team about $5.3 million for the remainder of this season and about $55 million for his final two arbitration seasons. The

Twins

are

paying Carlos Correa $81 million over the same 2 ½ years

.

Every team with the hope of winning the World Series in this three-year window must be in on Soto—

including the

Guardians

and

Rays

.

Cleveland and Tampa Bay? Yes. The pool is that deep.

Start with the obvious teams that are never out of a bidding war because of their resources: the

Yankees

,

Dodgers

,

Red Sox

and

Cubs

.

Add teams with new ownership who are willing to mortgage the long-term cost to seize this three-season window for a long-awaited World Series championship: the

Mets

,

Padres

and Guardians. Never discount new owner motivation as the X factor in these kinds of deals. And add the Rays to this group, not because the ownership is new but because they are desperate to generate momentum toward a new ballpark

somewhere.

(

See their free agent interest in Freddie Freeman

.)

Both Cleveland and Tampa Bay the necessary young talent in their system to be able to execute a potential Soto trade, and both are firmly in the mix in the wild-card race. Adding Soto into the fold would provide an enormous swing as teams prepare for the final two-month sprint toward the postseason.

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Soto, who debuted in 2018 at age 19, has spent his entire career with Washington and excelled since emerging onto the scene. He won the batting title in ’20 and owns a career .292/.426/.539 slash line, with 118 home runs and more walks (455) than strikeouts (410). He is under contract through the end of the ’24 season.