With their 18-33 record entering play Wednesday, the Washington Nationals have the worst mark in the National League and are only looking down at the 16-32 Kansas City Royals for the distinction of being the worst team in baseball. With superstar outfielder Juan Soto having turned down a 13-year, $350 million contract extension offer over the most recent offseason, common logic would lead many to believe that the 23-year-old may be on the trade block.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo strongly dismissed the idea of moving Soto during a Wednesday morning appearance on The Sports Junkies podcast.
Soto is off to a slightly slow start to the 2022 season, but is still leading MLB in walks with 42, while recording nine home runs, 16 RBIs and a .232/.379/.442 slash line through 51 games played. He is due to hit free agency following the 2024 season.
The 2018 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up, Soto collected 22 home runs and 70 RBIs in just 116 games that year before busting out in 2019. That season, Soto registered career highs in home runs (34), RBIs (110), stolen bases (12), doubles (32) and triples (five) while finishing ninth in the NL MVP vote and helping Washington win the World Series.
In the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, the native of the Dominican Republic led all of baseball in batting average (.351), on-base percentage (.490), slugging percentage (.695) and OPS (1.185) while earning his first Silver Slugger award. Soto was a first-time All-Star last year and captured his second Silver Slugger, behind a 29-HR, 95-RBI campaign where he led the league in walks (145), intentional walks (23) and on-base percentage (.465) while enjoying career-bests in hits (157) and runs scored (111).
