The San Diego Padres are coming to town, which means one thing, it is time to re-examine the Juan Soto trade. Back in 2022, Mike Rizzo and AJ Preller swung arguably the biggest trade of the 21st century. With the Nats in full rebuild mode, and in need of help on the farm, they traded their crown jewel Juan Soto to the Padres for an historic prospect return.
As we all know, this trade will define the next decade of Nats baseball. Usually, when you are trading a top 5 player in the sport at 23 years old, it is tough to win that deal. However, to Mike Rizzo’s credit, he hit this out of the park. The foundation of the Nationals is built around the pieces from this Juan Soto deal.
At the time, people debated who the true headliner of the deal was. That was not because there was a lack of blue chip talent coming back. It was quite the opposite, with the Nats getting 4 high end young players in the swap. CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III, and James Wood all had arguments at the time to be the best piece.
Abrams and Gore were former top 10 picks who had already reached the big leagues. Tough MLB debuts had dropped their stock ever so slightly, but they were still ultra-valuable pieces. Robert Hassell was yet another top 10 pick who was doing great things in High-A at the time. He seemed like such a safe profile due to his great hit tool. However, James Wood was seen as having the most upside. He was still years away, but his freakish size, power and athleticism immediately stood out in pro ball.
As someone who values upside, I was probably most excited about Wood. I had never seen him play, but I heard tales of his freak athleticism. He was not a top 25 prospect in baseball yet, but it only felt like a matter of time before he got there.
As it turns out, Wood became the prize of the deal. He raced through the minor leagues in 2023 and 2024, making his debut in July on ‘24. His stock kept exploding, even becoming Baseball America’s number one prospect and getting compared to Dave Winfield.
There have been some swing and miss issues, but Wood has turned into one of the best young hitters in the sport. So far in 2026, he has taken his game to another level. His 175 OPS+ is historic for a player his age. Last season, he tailed off in the second half, but if he avoids doing that again, he is well on his way to being an MVP candidate one day.
Usually when you trade a generational talent, you don’t get another guy with nearly as much upside in return. The Nats did just that when they got Wood. While Wood is not the pure hitter that Soto is, he has even more raw power and is a better athlete. He is such a special player and is only 23 years old.
However, Wood is not the only player from the Soto trade performing at a star level this season. CJ Abrams is playing the best baseball of his career, with a 162 OPS+ and a .937 OPS. While Abrams has gotten off to hot starts in the past, he has never been this good for this long. Wood and Abrams lead all of baseball in offensive WAR this season.
The Nats have shockingly been the best offense in baseball through two months, with Wood and Abrams being the catalysts. Meanwhile, the Padres are bottom five in runs scored and Soto has been off the team for years now. The Padres still have a solid record, but it is because of their pitching staff. If they had Wood and Abrams, the Padres would arguably be the World Series favorites.
It has not been totally smooth sailing for the Soto return though. The previously mentioned Robert Hassell has seen his development stall out. He had some time in the big leagues last year, but he has been passed by a lot of outfielders in the organization. Hassell’s hit tool simply was not as good as advertised. That sunk the profile, but this did not really hurt the Nats that much.
The other big piece in the Soto deal was MacKenzie Gore. At the time, Gore was injured, so he did not pitch in 2022. However, he became a fixture at the top of the Nats rotation from 2023 to 2025. Gore showed flashes of ace level upside, but never was able to put it together. Like a lot of these guys, Gore had a tendency to fade down the stretch.
In Paul Toboni’s first offseason, he traded the enigmatic lefty to the Texas Rangers for a prospect haul that looks really good so far. Devin Fitz-Gerald, Yeremy Cabrera and Abimelec Ortiz have all looked great. Headliner Gavin Fien has spent a lot of time injured, but he still has a lot of promise. These youngsters just add to the Soto trade legacy and make the tree even larger.
Speaking of the Soto trade tree, the Padres eventually realized they would not be able to re-sign Soto. The wheeling and dealing AJ Preller decided to trade Soto to the Yankees, in a deal that worked out well for them. Michael King and Randy Vasquez are both in the Padres rotation. They also sent Drew Thorpe, who they got in that deal to the White Sox in the Dylan Cease deal. While Cease is gone now, he had two solid years with the Padres.
That trade and its after-effects are still so big for both teams. I have not even mentioned Jarlin Susana yet either. He was the last piece of the deal, but he has turned into a flame throwing pitching prospect with electric stuff. Susana is hurt right now, but he will be pitching for the Nats at some point.
The Juan Soto trade will forever connect these two franchises. It is one of the biggest trades in baseball history. As you guys know, I get on Mike Rizzo a lot, but he absolutely hit this deal out of the park. It takes guts to trade a player the caliber of Soto, who was still only 23 years old. Rizzo knew it was the best move for the team, and I think he took the best package he could have possibly gotten.
With the Nats on the upswing now, hopefully Wood and Abrams will be making impacts in playoff games before too long. A lot has gone wrong for the Nats in the 2020’s, but the Juan Soto trade was not one of those things. It is a shame Soto was not a National for life, but this trade set up the Nats very well for the future. Hopefully James Wood can be the Nat for life that Soto could not be.
