I'm in line with that thought. Keep Soto and we're still an awful team until 2025 (assuming the younger guys in rookie and A ball pan out), right when Soto is hitting free agency. Trade Soto now and we've added a lot of depth and potentially 2-3 stars. Of course it's rare that superstar for prospects trade work out for the team losing the superstar, but I think we're in better long-term shape than we were before (assuming the deal eventually goes through).
The trades of Scheerzer, Soto, Bell etc gave us a chance to be competitive if we can fix the farm, and the front office w/new ownership hiring the right people.
W/o this trade, I simply could not see that, period. This team simply doesnt and didnt have the MLB or Minor League Talent in house to matter, period between now and the second half of this decade, period.
Now, if we can have House pay off, Green pay off, maybe some of the '22 pay off, and get good hauls in '23-'25, that changes, maybe a lot.
We went from no chance, period, but with Soto for a while, to some chance a few years from now, w/o Soto.
It's basically franchise 101, if you don't have a Big League Club or Farm worth a damn, you've got nothing. That's where we've been at the past 18 months, and w/the implosion of Stras and Corbin as options, and the developmental crash and burn of guys like Kieboom, Robles in tandem flushed any chance to build on '19 out the door. So this was the only option.
The only question is if we took the right prospect haul. It's hard to say we didn't w/o knowing what the Dodgers were willing to offer. The Cardinals offer clearly wasn't good enough, so it was either this or the Dodgers, I kinda respect how the Dodgers played it. Feels like they're brass was: nah, we'll sign him if we need him in '25, we're trying to build through '40, and we're not gutting the farm to make it a touch more likely to win in '22 or '23 or '24. Gotta respect that. The Padres, man, this is a big swing. And I still don't think theyre gonna get it done.