The San Diego Padres lost superstar Juan Soto in a trade to the New York Yankees. Their social media team focused on the positive.
We have acquired RHPs Michael King, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez and Drew Thorpe and C Kyle Higashioka from the New York Yankees.
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) December 7, 2023
Details: https://t.co/KNXicUUUT9 pic.twitter.com/9d0em2JugQ
San Diego is committed to cutting payroll, after a disappointing 82-80 season in 2023. They’ve already lost manager Bob Melvin to their division rival San Francisco Giants, and the Padres seem resigned to losing closer Josh Hader and Cy Young winner Blake Snell in free agency.
Soto was traded for a backup catcher and four rotation candidates, only one of which, Drew Thorpe, is a true pitching prospect.
The real motivation was to dump Soto’s salary, projected to be more than $30M next season, a year ahead of his free agency.
That’s why the first tweet celebrated the five relatively-anonymous players heading to Southern California and not the departing players.
San Diego also dealt outfield Trent Grisham to New York, who was mentioned alongside Soto in a thank-you post.
Thank you, Juan and Trent pic.twitter.com/GHGlIJJ9xc
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) December 7, 2023
But the hastily-assembled image of the players coming to the Padres shows there’s still optimism in San Diego amid their salary dumps. At least in the social media department.
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