When a club makes a big deal, the results are not always immediate for both teams. This was particularly the case for the Brewers and Josh Hader.
Obviously, this is a slightly different example since the club were still looking to win… even by exchanging their closer.
Clearly, that affected the guys, who lost the north and their playoff spot in 2022.
That said, this season, the club has decided to get up as a team and the result is convincing. It brought the players together and the Brewers are one of the good teams in the league because they play good baseball.
Hader made his way to San Diego, but his name isn’t often mentioned there. After all, there are stars per square foot in San Diego and the Californian club also acquired, almost at the same time, a certain Juan Soto.
Soto, who didn’t enjoy seeing the Nationals leaker the $440 million offer he had on the table left somewhat reluctantly and partly because he no longer wanted to negotiate with Washington. It played in his head.
And clearly, he hasn’t gotten out of his head yet. For what?
Because he’s not himself since he’s been in San Diego. He can’t seem to have the effect he had when he was the best hitter in the league (or thereabouts) in DC anymore.
In 76 regular season games at California, Soto has a .224/.382/.388 batting line and he has just 10 homers and 25 RBIs.
In short, he is no longer himself. A chance that Xander Bogaerts is there, this year…
Brief. Whether we talk about the others around him and the impact of Fernando Tatis Jr. or not, Soto has to get up. That’s what he was acquired for – at a high price – and the Padres need him.
And according to what Bob Nightengale reports, the Padres are starting to worry about the performance offered by their left fielder. After all, he’s used to the Padres, which is no longer an excuse or a reason to talk about his failures.
Soto, we understand, wants to get paid. He seemed to want to do it in Washington, he is open to doing it in San Diego, but we understood that with Scott Boras behind him, he will go where the money takes him.
And he better get up early if he wants to have a bigger offer than the Nationals on his table in a year and a half, when he’s free.
But there is a problem: Shohei Ohtani.
If the Padres, who are linked to the Nippon, decide to give $600 million to someone who wants to play for a good club and who loves California, we agree that there will be no money left for Juan Soto.
I have never ruled out the scenario of seeing the Padres trade Soto in the winter of 2023-2024, one year from autonomy, but it is indeed more and more possible. It’s not likely, but possible.
If he wants to help himself, it is better to start hitting.
