Deal for Nationals star Juan Soto will be hard to pull off

Word spread this weekend that outfielder Juan Soto turned down the Washington Nationals’ 15-year, $440 million offer that would have been the largest contract in baseball history.

That news nugget sparked talk that the Nationals might trade their superstar, but Ben Verlander of Flippin Bats thinks it’s unlikely he’ll be dealt, because it would take a lot for any team to acquire him. 

The Nationals reportedly are willing to listen to trade offers, but only a select few teams can afford a package to land the All-Star outfielder. The short list includes the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers.

Teams won’t trade away all their prospects for Soto, because they don’t want to leave their farm system barren around the star, Verlander said, but the Nationals will be looking a huge haul. 

Verlander also believes it could cost a team $500 million dollars to sign the 23-year-old long-term.

Will Juan Soto be traded by the Washington Nationals? | Flippin’ Bats

On Flippin’ Bats, Ben Verlander discusses Juan Soto rejecting the Washington Nationals’ latest mega-contract proposal and what this means moving forward.

“He wants a higher AAV, that’s what he wants. He wants to be around that $35 million mark,” Verlander said on the podcast. “This is wild. It’s going to take close to half a billion dollars to sign Juan Soto. Maybe there’s less years … but in my opinion, he wants to get past the Mike Trout record.”

Trout signed a $426 million deal with the Angels in 2019. 

One reason Soto turned down the latest offer from the Nationals is because it was heavily backloaded, one report said. The contract’s average value of $29.3 million ranked 20th overall, the report said.

The MLB trade deadline is Aug. 2.