MLBTradeRumors projects Padres' Juan Soto to make a record salary in 2024
The Padres could trade Juan Soto this offseason to help address several holes across the roster.
If they do not, they could owe him the largest one-year deal ever awarded to a player in his final year of arbitration.
The 24-year-old outfielder could command $33 million in his walk year, according to salary arbitration projections released on Friday by MLBTradeRumors.com. That figure would eclipse Shohei Ohtani’s $30 million salary for 2023 as the largest ever one-year deal.
Soto is coming off his first 162-game season. He led the majors in walks for the third time in five years, set a career-high with 35 homers and finished one shy of his personal watermark with 109 RBIs. All told, Soto hit .275/.410/.519, which included hitting .340/.444/.711 over the final month of the season — after the Padres’ postseason odds were dropped to well below unlikely and less than 1 percent for much of the final two weeks.
Nonetheless, the effort solidified Soto’s status as a one of nine National League finalists for the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the most outstanding regular-season offensive performer in each league.
Soto is vying with the Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson, the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll, the Cubs’ Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Marlins’ Luis Arraez and the Phillies’ Bryce Harper.
A fan vote at MLB.com/aaron, running through Oct. 13, will be weighed along a panelist of Hall-of-Famers and Major League Baseball legends. MLB.com journalists whittled the field down to the finalists.
A $33-million payday for Soto in 2024 would be a $10 million hike on last year’s salary and, combined with MLBTradeRumors’ other arbitration projections — RHP Scott Barlow ($7.1M), OF Trent Grisham ($4.9M), Tim Hill ($2.4M), C Austin Nola ($2.35M) and LHP Adrián Morejón ($900K) — would push the Padres’ base commitments to the 2024 payroll to just over $187 million, according to the Union-Tribune’s real-time estimate.
It has been reported that the organization is looking to shed some $50 million in payroll to about $200 million, leaving about $13 million to replace Blake Snell, as well as potentially Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez if the options aren’t picked up for that trio.
Hot AFL starts
Two Padres prospects are off to hot starts in the Arizona Fall League, with both Graham Pauley and Jakob Marsee homering twice through the first three games of the season, which began Monday.
Marsee, who is ranked No. 12 in MLB.com’s top Padres prospects, collected the first two-homer game of his life on Thursday. He is 7-for-11 and also tied for the league lead with three steals. His seven hits also lead the league so far.
Pauley, ranked No. 11, is tied for the AFL lead with eight RBIs and is 6-for-15.
Both Pauley and Marsee finished the season at Double-A San Antonio and should be in big league camp next spring, less than two years after they were drafted in July 2022.
