The San Diego Padres have a magnificent club in their hands. The goal of the game now will be to win the World Series. That’s why the owner stirs seas and people.
But also, the boss wants to keep his elements in place.
With Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. all here to stay, now the focus should be on keeping Juan Soto in town for as long as possible.
And the club want to chat with the star this spring – just like Josh Hader, for that matter.
Soto is 24 and still has nine seasons to go before he turns 32, which is when his agent Scott Boras sets the end of the primeon average, for a player.
If Manny Machado got $350M at 30, Soto is younger, he turned down $440M from the Nationals, the price went up, and Boras prefers to establish the value of his clients in the market autonomy… that makes the task difficult.
But it is not impossible.
Soto was well groomed by his agent. Basically, the one who is two years from autonomy said he was ready to see the Padres come to talk to him and open to discussions, but he will not take the first steps.
All players are tempted by the autonomy market.
–Juan Soto
Scott Boras acknowledges, however, that the Padres have moved a mountain in San Diego, the Mount Crushmore. Mr. Word Games is back.
We feel Soto would like to stay (and his teammates want the same), but the Padres will have to pay the price. Will they get there?
It will be a similar speech for Josh Hader, who wants to stay but recognizes that baseball is a business. He probably realized that when he was traded by the Brewers in a playoff race last year…
Hader will be a free agent in a year and he could, like Edwin Diaz, touch $ 100 million. Will he make it to Slam Diego? It is possible, yes.
