One of the biggest trades in recent MLB history occurred on Tuesday afternoon. After weeks of speculation that Washington Nationals superstar Juan Soto could be on the move after he turned down a lengthy and lucrative offer from the team, the San Diego Padres went all-in and acquired both Soto and Josh Bell for a gigantic package of young talent.
It’s absolutely worth giving all of this up for Soto and Bell, and now, the Padres are positioning themselves to secure their second playoff berth in the last 16 years. If all goes right, those two, Manny Machado, and a returning Fernando Tatis Jr. will give the team enough firepower to win their first World Series in franchise history.
A number of MLB reporters got in on breaking the news, one of which was ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’s usually pretty good about being on top of baseball news, and unsurprisingly, his timeline was filled with tweets about the trade.
The San Diego Padres are finalizing a deal to acquire superstar outfielder Juan Soto from Washington, sources tell ESPN.
One of the biggest deals in baseball history goes down, and it sends the 23-year-old to SD, where he will team with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 2, 2022
The package going back to Washington for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, sources tell ESPN:
– LHP MacKenzie Gore
– OF Robert Hassell III
– SS C.J. Abrams
– OF James Wood
– RHP Jarlin Susana
– one more major league playerThat’s the only holdup right now to the agreed-upon deal.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 2, 2022
Juan Soto has been informed he’s being traded to San Diego, a source tells ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 2, 2022
Like all scoop havers, there were a whole lot of reply guys in Passan’s mentions that wanted to get more info that he was, assuredly, trying to get. The twist this time is that one of them was Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who apparently saw Passan working on the story in a break room at the ESPN office, took a picture, and dropped it into his replies with a simple demand.
Announced Soto pic.twitter.com/LPVnjelNUM
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 2, 2022
Woj and Passan are friends, but still, it must’ve felt nice for Woj to be the one who hops into someone else’s replies like this for once.