Juan Soto Trade On Table After Turning Down Massive Extension

In a stunning turn of events, the Washington Nationals are now entertaining trade offers for Juan Soto after he turned down another massive 15-year extension that would have paid him $440M, the largest contract in baseball history. 

Nationals tried to lock up Juan Soto for 15 YEARS and he said nope pic.twitter.com/UjnUvKubPB

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 16, 2022

The 23-year-old superstar has now turned down three extension offers from the Nats, with agent Scott Boras pulling the strings. The average annual value of the latest offer would have been $29.3M, the 20th largest in baseball history, but the total value would have exceeded the record $426.5M Mike Trout is getting from the Los Angeles Angels.

Back on June 1st, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said the team would not be trading Soto, and instead wanted to make him the centrepiece of their rebuilding plans. All of that has now changed. 

Although Soto is still under team control for two more seasons after this one, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic notes that they now believe, after he turned down the $440M, “that if they cannot sign him for that money, they never will.”

Let the bidding frenzy begin.

Photo Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports