Padres Star Adds Fuel to Dodgers Rivalry With Blunt Response to Question About NL West Foe

Padres star Juan Soto added some fire to the flame when addressing his team’s rivalry with the Dodgers on Tuesday. The outfielder gave a candid response when asked about Los Angeles and appeared to take a bit of a shot at the divisional opponent. 

“We don’t worry about them. They should be worried about us,” Soto said when talking about the Dodgers. “We showed up last year. We showed them what we had in the playoffs. Just came up, played good baseball and beat them. Now we add more players, have more depth in our lineup, our bullpen is great—I would say we have one of the best bullpens in the league. 

"We're not worrying about them. They should be worrying about us."

-Juan Soto on the Padres-Dodgers rivalry ???? pic.twitter.com/q5WJsstC13

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) April 11, 2023

“I think they should be worried about us. We don’t worry about anybody,” he continued. 

Soto was referring to last seasons’ NLDS where San Diego beat Los Angeles in a 3–1 series. In those games, Soto had three runs and three hits in his 16 at-bats for the Padres. San Diego is currently atop the NL West at 7–5 with the Dodgers sitting at 6–6. 

Both teams don’t play each other until May 5, but there’s going to be even more bulletin board material for a Dodgers team looking for some payback.