Padres, Yankees Agree on Trade to Send Juan Soto, Trent Grisham To New York Yankees

San Diego moves on from their star less than two years after acquiring him.

The first major domino of the MLB offseason has fallen. The San Diego Padres have agreed on a trade to send star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees. Outfielder Trent Grisham is also being included in the deal with the Yankees.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the deal is agreed upon, and will be made official soon.

The trade between the Yankees and Padres sending Juan Soto and Trent Grisham to New York is now completed. The teams to make it official some time tonight.

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 7, 2023

Prior reports have said the return for Soto includes pitchers Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez and Kyle Higashioka. This report was then finalized by Dennis Lin of the Athletic.

The Padres-Yankees deal is done, as you've probably heard. According to a source, Soto and Grisham for King, Thorpe, Vásquez, Brito and Higashioka.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) December 7, 2023

It had long been thought that New York would be the landing spot if the Padres decided to move on from Soto, and they now get their man. The Yankees wanted to make a splash this offseason and now get the big fish that they have been going after. 

The asking price for Soto was very high, but the Yankees found a way to meet it. The Padres receive a five-player haul in this deal — four of whom can help at the major league level immediately — and, perhaps most critically for their needs, get out from under the $30 million or so they were expecting to pay Soto in his final year of arbitration eligibility.

King was great for the Yankees last season, posting an ERA of 2.75 over 104.2 innings of work. He would give the Friars a very nice arm to use out of the bullpen, plug into their rotation, use as a multi-inning pitcher after an opener, or use in a swingman role.

Needing to shed salary this winter, the Padres were motivated to move Soto. He was projected to make $33 million by MLB Trade Rumors in his final year before free agency. Considering the Padres' projected outlay to only five players — Xander Bogaerts, Joe Musgrove, Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, and Fernando Tatis Jr. — exceeded $119 million for 2024 alone, trading Soto was perhaps a necessary move.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in September that the front office projected to trim its player payroll to "around $200 million ... in part because they are out of compliance with MLB regulations regarding their debt service ratio."

This decision to shed payroll comes after the organization decided to go all-in financially over the last few seasons. It came back to hurt them, and now they will move on from their star outfielder less than two seasons after acquiring him.

Last season, Soto hit .275 with 35 home runs and 109 runs batted in. Higashioka, the only position player the Padres acquired in the trade, will not be expected to replace that level of production. The rest of the lineup will have to pick up the slack for their departed teammate.

The Padres' front office has some work to do the rest of the offseason, but this move now opens the door to different routes. They still want to be competitive next season, and it'll be up to president of baseball operations A.J. Preller to get creative in how he approaches his next move.

Soto is offically going to be gone from San Diego, closing the door on the one-and-a-half-year partnership between the two sides.