Previous this year, the San Diego Padres introduced that supervisor Bob Melvin will go back for the 2024 season. Now, the most important query going through the Padres is possibly later Melvin can have megastar outfielder Juan Soto at his disposal. 

Soto, 24, will qualify for detached company nearest the 2024 marketing campaign. For the reason that 1) the Padres have already made profitable long-term loyalty to alternative stars — Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts integrated — and a pair of) contemporary studies point out that San Diego will glance to decrease payroll this wintry weather, it stands to explanation why {that a} Soto extension would possibly fall out of doors in their reassurance zone. That, in flip, may precipitate an offseason business that sends Soto somewhere else.

Common supervisor A.J. Preller reiterated this year that the “first path” with Soto rest an extension. Preller, although, did concede rather when he requested if a business may well be at the desk. “We’ve never been a group that says no to anything. I wouldn’t read into that. That’s just kind of the way we operate,” he stated, according to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. 

The Padres’ need to fasten in Soto to a long-term do business in is not anything fresh. Again in August, USA Lately’s Bob Nightengale reported the Padres had been “aggressively” seeking to prolong Soto, “just as they have all season.” The ones efforts have so far did not go to the purpose final touch, although issues can trade temporarily in negotiations if one facet starts to really feel a better sense of urgency.

Soto has endured to be one of the crucial fruitful hitters in Primary League Baseball since becoming a member of the Padres in a midseason business all through the 2022 marketing campaign. Certainly, he’s batted .265/.405/.488 (151 OPS+) with 41 house runs and 125 RBI in 214 video games out west. Soto’s mixture of juvenile and monitor document must construct him certainly one of, if no longer probably the most fascinating participant in the marketplace.

For now, Soto will head into his ultimate wintry weather of arbitration eligibility with a projected prize of $33 million, consistent with Matt Swartz’s fashion.