Before today, no player age 23 or younger in Major League Baseball had ever been traded midseason when he was an All-Star. And no player had ever made multiple All-Star teams and changed teams all before turning 24. However, those “trends” are out of date in the wake of the San Diego Padres landing Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals ahead of the Trade Deadline, and the Friars also got another good hitter in Josh Bell from the Nats. San Diego's World Series odds at Caesars Sportsbook have changed dramati cally.
Washington reportedly got prospects Mackenzie Gore (currently hurt) CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III, James Wood and Jarlin Susana, so San Diego really didn't hurt its current roster at all; there are reports Eric Hosmer was included, too, but he had really fallen off of late and SD wanted to shed his salary. Abrams is the likely prize of that group and has played in 46 big-league games this year but was only hitting .232 with two homers and 11 RBIs, and he was probably going to be sent down once Fernando Tatis Jr. was back from injury.
How good will the San Diego lineup be with Soto, a healthy Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado? And the team upgraded its bullpen Monday by acquiring perhaps the best closer in the sport in Milwaukee's Josh Hader.
That Hader deal had dropped the Padres from +2200 to +2000 to win their first World Series. The Soto/Bell trade has San Diego as a +800 fifth favorite at Caesars as well as dropping the Padres from +800 to +400 for the NL pennant. They still have essentially no shot to catch the Dodgers in the NL West, priced +4000 to LA's -10000 and 12 games back.