5:02pm: Washington has also settled with outfielder Juan Soto, who will earn $8.5MM, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. The 22-year-old phenom still has three more seasons of control left after 2021.
4:33pm: The Nationals and star shortstop Trea Turner have agreed to a $13MM salary for next season, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com was among those to report. Turner is a client of CAA Sports.
This settlement falls somewhere in the middle of MLBTR’s $9.4MM to $16.6MM arbitration projection for Turner, who has been stellar for the Nationals dating back to 2016. Last year may have been Turner’s best season yet, as the speedster batted .335/.394/.588 with 12 home runs and a dozen stolen bases in 259 plate appearances. The 27-year-old finished fourth among National League position players in fWAR (2.7) and seventh in wRC+ (157).
Turner is likely to stay in Washington for at least another couple of seasons, as he has another year of arb control left after 2021. However, based on the impact Turner has made in their uniform, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Nationals attempt to extend him before he’s eligible for free agency.
The Nats let more stars go than they sign long-term, especially if you consider position players. I really would have loved for them to sign Anthony Rendon long-term but it is clear his heart wasn’t in it. This is different, though. The window of strong contention may close, but I think most or all of us Nats fans would love to see Juan Soto and Trea Turner be in DC for their entire careers.
Soto is going to get real expensive. Hope he’s ok with deferrals if he stays long term.
Not sure we “let them go”. Both Harper and Rendon were going for bigger money
Our GM mike knew we didnt need Harper thats why we got Corbin and he said that was his No. 1 priority. Also It was either Rendon or Strasburg and the Nats choose SP over any position. Hopefully its different when that comes to soto and turner
Plus Stras loves the area and wanted to be here.
Agree with SJM. They had 3 huge contract “situations” come up within a 12 month period. No one was “let go”. Unless you have Yankees diollars, you cant keep everyone.
Soto’s repped by Boras, who does not do extensions unless a client requests him to get one done (i.e. Strasburg). So as a Nats fan I’m going to enjoy Soto while he’s here and then worry about it after 2024. Pity that The Lerners are hampered by that crap local TV deal w/ MASN.
You said it, brother. MASN deal is a disaster.
@Sked
All of the moves the Nats have made [or not made] this offseason have been executed with the assumption of putting big offer together for both players over the next couple of years.
When a team puts out it’s best offer it’s up to the player.
As a Mets fan I would love to scoop up Soto but I doubt that would ever be a reality. I’m sure if he got too expensive and they were to trade him it would most likely be to the Yankees. He’s a damn good one.
As a Yankees fan, I would love to have him. Unfortunately, with Stanton and Cole (among other arb. contracts like Judge and Torres), I don’t know if they would want to take on what Soto will eventually cost.
Yeah, so would literally every other team in baseball. He has a very good chance to be the best OF of the decade.
Soto’s going to shatter the arb record.
My top 5 OF for the 2020’s:
1. Acuna, Jr.
2. Soto
3. Trout
4. Betts
5. Robert (admittedly, a little hope on my part on this one, being a White Sox fan and all)
What’s your list?
1 Trout
2 Soto
3 Betts
4 Acuna
5 Bellinger
I understand that Trout is getting older and won’t be as good as he ages. With that being said, he is indisputably the best player in baseball right now, and I don’t expect him to decline anytime soon.
1 Soto
2 Acuña
3 Trout
4 Betts
5 Kelenic
1. Trout (but for the entire decade?)
2. Soto
3. Acuna (based on skill plus contract)
4. Bichette ( he’s going to turn into a top 5 player with the bat and hopefully improved D)
5. Gore (he’s going to be the next Randy Johnson)
I’m with you on Gore becoming the best pitcher in baseball but this was about the top 5 OF only
We seem to agree on four of the guys, lol. Then we’re just playing hometown hero for the last guy.
Yeah I don’t think you can argue against Trout, Soto, Betts and Acuna. The last outfielder is more of a wild card.
1. Dylan
2. Dylan
3. Dylan
4. Dylan
5. Dylan
he spits hot fire…
1. Trout
2. Soto
3. Betts
4. Acuña
5. Julio Rodriguez!
Soto
Acuna
Trout
Betts
Julio Rodriguez
Would you give Soto 500mil for a 20 year deal (if that was allowed)?
You’d have to ask yourself what his AAV on the open market is, then how long it will take to reach that kind of money. His hitting was on a whole other level last year, but I don’t think that’s sustainable and he’s a below average defender. Even if we say he’s a 6-7 WAR player, I don’t think that should get a $35M/yr salary, closer to $30-32M. That means he’d need 17 years at that level to be worth $500M. Do I think he can do that? Honestly, no. He’s might end up as a better hitter than Trout, but Trout is above average to excellent in almost every facet of the game. Soto costs a team on the defensive end, so Trout will end up being more valuable unless Soto is either Ruthian or works hard on his defense.
Long story short, no, I wouldn’t lock myself into that kind of commitment, even for a 22-year old with HOF potential.
He is the safest bet , if he was a free agent today, ofcourse he will get 500 millions.
He is going to RF now ( his original position) and he was very good defensively in 2019.
Improved, but not good. Still negative dWAR, per Baseball Reference. He’s not a butcher like Castellanos was, but he is still subtracting value. I will say that if we wiped everyone’s contracts, he or Acuna would be the safest bets to get this much in the FA free-for-all that would follow. But that’s a huge bet on anybody and an absolute anchor if they’re injured often (like Stanton) or decline sooner than expected.
Wrong.
Improved AND good.
He’s in RF now.
Soto cant catch a break. At age 19, he gets called up to not only carry some of the offense on his shoulders, but then gets asked to learn a new position. He struggled badly in LF, and despite improving, he’s still labelled with this “lousy defender” tag, which is ridiculous NOW that he’s back in RF.
Anyone who watched him in RF last season noticed his comfort zone shot up after he was moved there. And the coaches love how hard he’s worked at getting better on D. Any Nats fan who had to endure watching Bryce Harper in RF knows we will be fine with Soto out there. Adam Eaton hardly inspired alot of confidence either.
Soto’s 22. If it were right now, No, I would not give him a 20 year deal, that’s not practical. 15 years max and if I’m in the NL I pray that the DH will be in place by the 2035.
I seriously doubt Scott Boras would accept $25M AAV for Soto when Arenado (8 years older) is getting $32M AAV.
He is the safest bet , if he was a free agent today, ofcourse he will get 500 millions.
He is going to RF now ( his original position) and he was very good defensively in 2019.
Clemente ,V.Guerrero ,Ichiro ,Bonds and Soto. Not necessarily in that order.
And Evans.
So Kluber’s off the board, which is most likely prologue to a spate of starter signings. I was just looking at at the MLBTR predictions for top 50 Free Agents and noted a couple of potential Nats pickups… given this applies to about 2/3 of the other teams as well:
Starters
Rank Player MLBTR
47 Cole Hamels [38 yo] 1yr@4MM
For all of his career this is a pitcher who ate innings and kept his team in the games on good, bad and mediocre teams. But last off season Hamels lost a wrestling match with the injury bug first with Shoulder inflammation and then tricep tendonitis. Atlanta got very little for their 18MM.
45 Jon Lester [37 yo] MLBTR- 1yr@5MM
Another picture of consistency with a dash of excellence [check out the hardware], Lester was bought out of his 25 million contract for a mere 5MM. That defines your range but given the age it looks closer to the single digit rather than the double digit figure. Going Mid Millions and two years may be the sweetener that gets a deal done
Relievers
Rank Player MLBTR
48 Mark Melancon [36yo] 1yr/4MM
Continuing our theme of old reliable… Mark is now four year removed from shoulder surgery, turning in a good year for the Braves last season. The market for relievers has been sluggish of late due to the number of high end players at all positions and the arbitration process playing out. But budgets are now in sharper focus and the signings will flow… or was that the spice….
42 Kirby Yates [34yo] 1yr/5MM
Our final picture of consistency is Kirby Yates, who has quietly built up a career in San Diego. From 2017-2019 Yates registered ERAs of 3.72, 2.14 & 1.19, the last with 41 saves. But the injury bug took Kirby out of action in 2020 leading to Surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow. The good news is Yates should be 100% to Start Spring workouts .