James Wood is delivering the long-term pain Padres expected from Juan Soto trade

On Friar Territory, Darren Smith recently suggested the Padres knew they were trading away the next Yordan Alvarez when they included James Wood in the Juan Soto deal. We’re not going to go quite that far. At least, not yet. The Padres already have enough reasons to feel uncomfortable without turning Wood into a future Hall of Famer before he turns 24. What we can say is that he’s become exactly the kind of player the Padres feared they were surrendering when they traded for Juan Soto.

Wood entered the All-Star break slashing .279/.410/.575, with 28 home runs, 64 RBI and 15 stolen bases. He’s already made two All-Star teams and is producing like a legit NL MVP candidate.

This isn’t an unexpected development the Padres never saw coming. They drafted Wood in the second round in 2021 and watched a 6-foot-7 teenager begin turning enormous physical tools into legitimate production.

They knew how good he might become, and they made the trade anyway.

James Wood was always part of the Juan Soto gamble

That was the bargain behind acquiring Soto. The Friars weren’t tricked into that deal. Wood was one of the headliners.

The Padres sent Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana to Washington, with Luke Voit later included in the completed package, for Soto and Josh Bell. Washington wanted the kind of return that could rebuild an entire organization because San Diego was acquiring one of the best hitters on the planet.

There was no way the Nats were going to give away Soto for a few prospects the acquiring team would never miss.

The Padres accepted the possibility that at least one of those players could become a star. Now Wood is becoming something even more painful: a young, affordable, middle-of-the-order force who would solve several of San Diego’s current problems at once.

He hits for power, reaches base and he can run. He’s under club control and gives Washington a player it can construct its next contender around, instead of constantly scrambling to keep an expensive roster afloat. Sound’s nice, doesn’t it?

Juan Soto gave the Padres a real chance to win

At the same time, the Padres shouldn’t apologize for acquiring Soto. He helped drive the 2022 club to the NLCS. The Padres eliminated the Dodgers, reached their first NLCS since 1998 and briefly looked capable of completing the exact championship run Preller had envisioned.

Soto also played all 162 games in 2023, led the majors with 132 walks and hit 35 home runs. His Padres tenure wasn’t a failure. The problem is that the Padres didn’t finish the job. The Padres lost in the NLCS in 2022, collapsed during a wildly disappointing 2023 season and traded Soto to the Yankees that winter because they needed to cut payroll and rebuild their pitching staff.

The Padres traded Soto to the Yankees in a deal that helped them remain competitive and prevented him from leaving for nothing. They received a collection of arms headlined by Michael King. But it didn’t bring a return like Wood back. 

Padres are now feeling the cost of their all-in philosophy

We cannot blame the Padres’ entire situation on one trade. The Padres have made plenty of aggressive moves since acquiring Soto. They’ve signed expensive contracts, traded other prospects, changed managers and repeatedly tried to patch holes. The current roster wasn’t built by one transaction.

Still, everything connects to the same organizational obsession: chase the championship now and let the future version of the Padres figure out the consequences.

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