Things can change pretty quickly in the world of Major League Baseball contract negotiations and Washington Nationals slugger Juan Soto realized that this past week.
While he helped lead the Nats to a World Series and has been among the league’s strongest hitters, Soto’s negotiations with the franchise over a new contract haven’t quite come together, though the Nationals have said in the past they have no interest in trading the All-Star, who is under contract until 2024.
That changed on Saturday when Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Soto rejected a $440 million contract offer from the Nationals, who will now “entertain trading him.”
The 23-year-old appeared at Media Day for the MLB All-Star Game on Monday and said he was surprised by Washington’s sudden reversal.
Juan Soto on the Nationals:
"A couple weeks ago, they were saying they will never trade me. And now all these things come out. You don't know what to trust." pic.twitter.com/slevulbG9k
— SNY (@SNYtv) July 18, 2022
“I don’t know, I haven’t talked to anybody about how that changed or what was the mindset,” Soto said. “…A couple weeks ago, they were saying they will never trade me. And now, all these things come out.
“It feels really uncomfortable. You don’t know what to trust. At the end of the day, it’s out of my hands what decision they make.”
Soto added that it was “pretty frustrating” for the negotiation details to get leaked.
“I try to keep myself private. I don’t try to throw stuff out there,” he said. “At the end of the day, we just have to keep playing…I have my hands tied. I’m just going to play as hard as I can.”
