Washington Nationals slugger Juan Soto reportedly is on the trade block.
And the Giants, just one game back from a playoff spot, certainly could use a star of that caliber.
But what would it take?
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It’s now something San Francisco needs to consider after The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Saturday, citing sources, that Soto recently turned down a 15-year, $440 million offer from the Nationals that would have made him the highest-paid player in baseball history.
Now, according to Rosenthal, Washington plans to entertain trade offers for the All-Star outfielder despite president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo stating in June that the team had no intention of dealing him.
With the MLB trade deadline just over two weeks away, what kind of package could the Giants put together for one of the best young hitters the game has ever seen?
For starters, Giants fans would have to say goodbye to the team’s top two prospects in shortstop Marco Luciano and left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison.
Luciano enjoyed a hot start to the season with High-A Eugene, hitting .288 with an .867 OPS and eight home runs over 40 games before being sidelined by a lower back strain. The 20-year-old is the Giants’ No. 1 prospect according to MLB.com and was recently ranked as the league’s No. 19 prospect by Baseball America and No. 9 on the MLB Pipeline list.
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Harrison will represent the Giants in the Futures Game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday and is San Francisco’s No. 2 prospect according to MLB.com. He has worked his way up to No. 22 on Baseball America’s top prospect list, and the outlet views him as the top left-handed pitching prospect in baseball.
With a 2.52 ERA and 119 strikeouts with both High-A Eugene and Double-A Richmond, Harrison appears poised to make his way onto the big league roster soon.
And while Luciano and Harrison would be a hefty return for any team in a trade, Soto isn’t just any player. But if the Giants hope to stand a chance in any playoff series, should they make it there, current players on the roster aren’t much of an option in this hypothetical trade, leaving the farm system as the primary source of compensation.
The Giants’ front office likely would need to send two or even three other productive prospects to Washington, like outfielder Luis Matos, ranked No. 3 in the organization by MLB.com, slugger Heliot Ramos (No. 5) or maybe catcher Joey Bart, who is back in the bigs and appears to be reaping the benefits of the swing adjustments he made during a demotion to Triple-A in June.
Should the Giants prevail in the Soto sweepstakes with a handful of the players mentioned above or others, the 23-year-old is set to hit free agency after the 2024 season. Soto’s agent is Scott Boras, who typically tries to get his clients to the open market where they can receive top dollar.
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If the Giants hope to keep Soto beyond 2024 and make everything they’d have to give up to acquire him worth it, they clearly can expect to pay north of $30 million per year.
The departure of such promising prospects plus the heap of cash it would take to secure Soto long term are a daunting price, but Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi didn’t rule out making a splash as buyers at the deadline when speaking to reporters on Tuesday -- he did, however, say he needed to see more from his slumping team before making a decision.
The Giants are showing fight as they went on to win three of their next four games after Zaidi’s comments, outscoring their opponents 27-11 since then.
Adding Soto to the lineup for the second half of the season could be just the surge the Giants need for a postseason push, if the price is right.
