Why the SF Giants need to trade for Juan Soto right now

If the Giants had a type, “generational left-handed slugger” might be it.

From Mel Ott to Willie McCovey to Barry Bonds, the Giants have cornered the market on elite left-handed power hitters for nearly a century.

The gap from Ott’s last homer (April 16, 1946) to McCovey’s first (Aug. 2, 1959) was 13 years. The time between McCovey’s last game in San Francisco (July 6, 1980) to Bonds’ first (April 6, 1993) was also 13 years.

Now, 15 seasons after Bonds last donned the orange and black, the Giants have an opportunity to add one of the few players ever born with the ability to threaten his all-time home run record.

Washington Nationals star Juan Soto is reportedly available via trade. It’s time for the Giants to make a deal.

With less than two weeks remaining until the Aug. 2 trade deadline, MLB Network reporter Jon Morosi said Thursday that one team he’s watching closely in the Soto sweepstakes is the Giants.

Why?

“Because they have been involved in different pursuits, they were in on (Bryce) Harper, years ago they tried to trade for (Giancarlo) Stanton,” Morosi said. “There’s no more (Buster) Posey. (Brandon) Crawford and (Brandon) Belt are nearing the ends of their contracts and in the next couple of years, there’s a space in this team’s payroll.”

From Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans to Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris, the Giants have tried (and failed) to lure top sluggers to San Francisco. The Giants can’t afford to miss again.

As the Dodgers have surrounded their core with stars from Mookie Betts and Trea Turner via trades and Freddie Freeman through a long-term free-agent deal, the Padres have worked diligently to bring Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and others to San Diego.

The result? Compelling teams in Southern California are in prime position to make the playoffs while the Giants, following Buster Posey’s retirement in November, start the second half needing to gain ground to slot into a wild card position in an expanded postseason field.

What might it take to add Soto?

“They have (Marco) Luciano as a top-100 prospect, as is (Kyle) Harrison, as is (Luis) Matos,” Morosi said on MLB Network. “I believe they have the financial resources to bring him in and pay him, and they have the prospects to make this deal happen.”

Wouldn’t the Nationals want more? An established major leaguer such as Logan Webb?

“I don’t think you need to (include Webb),” Morosi added when discussing a prospective trade. “This is a longer-term deal. This is where the Nationals, they benefit from a couple of things here. Having won the World Series a couple of years ago, they don’t have to make a hasty decision and speed up the rebuild.”

To anyone questioning the wisdom of trading away the team’s top three prospects in Luciano, Harrison and Matos, consider what the Giants’ farm system has produced over the last decade.

First-round draft picks Chris Stratton (2012), Christian Arroyo (2013), Tyler Beede (2014), Phil Bickford (2015) and Chris Shaw (2015) all reached the major leagues, but none established themselves as mainstays. If the Nationals wanted the Giants’ five most recent first-round draft picks eligible to be traded, Heliot Ramos (2017), Joey Bart (2018), Hunter Bishop (2019), Patrick Bailey (2020) and Will Bednar (2021), the Giants would make the deal in an instant.

For a chance to acquire Soto, no player should be considered off limits. The 23-year-old is younger than Bart, Bishop and closer Camilo Doval, and already has 118 home runs and three top-10 finishes in National League MVP voting under his belt.

The only player that should Zaidi should be concerned about parting with in a potential blockbuster trade is Logan Webb, the Giants’ first homegrown ace since the farm system produced Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner. But as Morosi pointed out, there are no guarantees Webb is an ideal fit for a rebuilding Nationals team.

The right-hander is on track to earn significant salaries in arbitration in each of the next three years before becoming a free agent following the 2025 season. Would the Nationals, in the midst of a multi-year rebuild, really covet paying top dollar for a starter who is poised to leave them as soon as they become competitive again?

Giants players with far less service time –think Doval, LaMonte Wade Jr., and David Villar– would almost assuredly be better fits for this type of a deal. And if the Nationals come calling for Luciano, Harrison, Matos, Doval, Wade and Villar, the Giants should agree to a trade.

If the Giants don’t make this move now, the next time a player of Soto’s caliber is expected to be available is the winter of 2025, when –you guessed it– Soto is set to enter free agency. By that time, a team that makes the most aggressive move to acquire him now (think the Dodgers or Padres) may have already convinced him to sign a 12-year, $500 million deal.

There’s only one Juan Soto, and for the rest of his career, there might be only one time the Giants can acquire him.

They must do it right now.