Padres trade Juan Soto to Yankees in 7-player blockbuster

Juan Soto is headed to the New York Yankees in their first big move following the team's worst season in three decades.

They hope at least one more will follow.

New York acquired Soto and Gold Glove centre fielder Trent Grisham in a blockbuster trade with the cost-cutting Padres on Wednesday night. San Diego received right-handed pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, Randy Vasquez and Drew Thorpe along with catcher Kyle Higashioka.

It was the second monster deal involving the 25-year-old Soto in less than two years. The three-time All-Star slugger has one season of team control left and is likely to get a salary around $32 million US after batting .275 with 35 homers, 109 RBIs and a .930 OPS in his only full season with the Padres.

San Diego obtained Soto from Washington on Aug. 2, 2022, after he turned down a $440 million, 15-year offer from the Nationals.

Padres general manager A.J. Preller said his team needed pitching and the swap gives San Diego young arms who will be with the franchise for several years.

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"It's very difficult to make a deal where we're trading a player the caliber of Juan Soto, but if we did that we wanted to make sure we shored up a bunch of needs. We were able to get some depth, with quality," Preller said at a late-night news conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where baseball's winter meetings were wrapping up.

New York went 82-80 last season, narrowly avoiding its first losing record since 1992, and finished 29th among the 30 major league teams in batting average.

Soto joins a Yankees outfield that projects to have fellow All-Star Aaron Judge in center and newly acquired Alex Verdugo in the other corner. Soto has a 1.274 OPS in