Padres painfully watch Juan Soto, Dylan Cease and former stars own All-Star spotlight

The Padres sent Mason Miller to Philadelphia as their lone representative in the 2026 MLB All-Star Game. They also sent enough former talent to fill out a pretty weird reunion.

Juan Soto and CJ Abrams were named National League starters. James Wood joined Abrams as a Nationals reserve. Dylan Cease is the American League’s starting pitcher. Everywhere Padres fans looked, another familiar face was wearing an All-Star uniform for somebody else.

There’s no clever front-office spin that can make that visual any less painful. 

The Padres entered the break at .500 with one All-Star. Meanwhile, four players who passed through the organization were selected, including three directly connected to the same winding Juan Soto trade tree.

Baseball transactions require context, and we’ll get to that. First, we should acknowledge what everyone can see. The Padres once controlled an absurd amount of talent. Now, much of it is thriving elsewhere.

Padres’ Juan Soto trade tree has become an All-Star showcase

Abrams and Wood were two of the headline pieces the Friars shipped to the Washington Nationals in 2022 for Soto and Josh Bell. The Padres also surrendered MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana in the blockbuster. 

That was the price of chasing a championship with one of the best hitters alive. We all understood it then. The Padres had Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and a roster built to win immediately. Adding Soto was meant to push them over the top. And it almost worked. 

San Diego reached the 2022 NLCS, and Soto played a meaningful role in the deepest postseason run in franchise history since 1998. Still, the bill eventually comes due.

Abrams developed into an All-Star shortstop. Wood became the exact kind of enormous, middle-of-the-order force scouts envisioned when he was still climbing through the Padre’s system. Now both will represent Washington in Philadelphia, years after the Nationals accepted a painful reset and used the Padres’ farm system to press on the gas. 

Then there’s Soto. The Padres traded him to the Yankees after the 2023 season because their payroll had to come down and he was approaching free agency. San Diego received Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe and Kyle Higashioka in return. Thorpe later became a central piece of the package used to acquire Cease from the White Sox.

That chain of events was smart work under difficult circumstances. King became a valuable starter. Cease gave San Diego another frontline arm and threw a no-hitter in a Padres uniform. We can recognize all of this while staring directly at the ugly part. Soto is starting the All-Star Game for the National League. Cease is starting it for the American League. That’s a vicious before-and-after picture.

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