“I never thought they would do it. I was thinking they would try to keep me and try to rebuild the team with me in it. It caught me by surprise,” Soto said in the Padres’ clubhouse as he laced up the other cleat. The New York Mets were beating up on the Nationals on a television hanging a few yards away. “Deep in my heart, I was thinking they wouldn’t do it.”
This is obviously BS
Not so sure, or at least not sure it is obvious. They did not trade away Harper with even fewer years of control, and didn't let Stras walk. Sure they had the blow up last year, but Soto was so much younger than all those guys. You also have to recall that Turner was surprised, too. You have to remember that he's still a young man, a pretty charmed young man the last 7 years or so, so the "it's just business" may not have quite sunk in on him. It certainly was Boras's obligation to do his best to make sure that his client knew this was a potential consequence, and I have no doubt Boras at least explained it to him, even if it was cursory and against Boras's recommendation. We can say, "should have known," but Soto really doesn't have an incentive to be dishonest with Janes when he says that in his gut he didn't think this was going to happen.
