Meet the new San Diego Padres after Juan Soto trade to New York Yankees

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The inevitable finally happened: Juan Soto is leaving San Diego to become a New York Yankee.

After a lot of speculation and starting and stopping of conversations with multiple teams over many months, the Padres and longtime Soto trade frontrunners in New York have finally come to an agreement. Soto will take his estimated $27 million salary to the Bronx for at least one year until he reaches free agency following the 2024 season, and he'll be joined by Trent Grisham. In return, the Padres will receive five players from the Yankees, including pitcher Michael King, top Yankees pitching prospect Drew Thorpe, and catcher Kyle Higashioka.

It's undoubtedly a tough day for Padres fans, who saw Soto slash .275/.410/.519 with a .930 OPS in his one and only full year in San Diego. He'll be taking his incredible 18.6% walk rate and career average of 27 home runs a year to a team that slugs and really, really needs to accept that walking is an acceptable aspect of baseball. Soto is a young superstar, and that shouldn't be underestimated either — he'll certainly leave a gap in the Padres' offense that it'll take some effort to fill again.

The new San Diego Padres after Juan Soto trade to New York Yankees

But all's not lost. Talks with the Yankees stalled and turned stilted often because New York was at certain points unwilling to give up the talent they eventually conceded, and the Padres refused to accept less for Soto. A few of the players coming over could have a quick impact on the team going into 2024, and the others will help bolster an improving farm system. All will give the Padres more pitching depth on multiple levels. Here are the new Padres coming to San Diego in return for Juan Soto.

Michael King

The newest Padre who will have the most immediate effect on the team is pitcher Michael King, who the Yankees seemed reluctant to give up throughout negotiations. This isn't surprising; King, primarily a reliever through his five seasons in New York, was being primed to take a spot in the Yankees' rotation next year. He started nine games this year, eight of which represented his last appearances of the year. Over those eight games, he pitched 38 1/3 innings and finished the year with a 2.75 ERA, and on Sept. 30, he pitched seven innings with 13 strikeouts against the Blue Jays. He also closed 10 games and wracked up six saves.

King is clearly more than on his way to becoming a solid middle rotation option; Aaron Boone was fully expecting King to join the rotation for the Yankees next season. In coming to the Padres, King is already prepared to take over in the spot Seth Lugo, another longtime-reliever-to-successful-starter who came to the Padres from a New York team, vacated in free agency. Even if his production as a starter wanes or doesn't quite live up to the expectations he's set for himself this year, he could still be used as a more than effective reliever in multiple contexts.

Kyle Higashioka

Gerrit Cole's personal catcher will also be on a plane to San Diego. Kyle Higashioka was the Yankees' main backstop this season, promoted from backup, as their main catcher Jose Trevino sat for over 100 games with a wrist injury. Prior to this season, Higgy was most notable for his connection to Gerrit Cole, who spurned Gary Sanchez by choosing to make all of his starts with Higgy when he joined the team in 2019. Higashioka managed to put up decent offensive numbers this year, the best in his career (.236/.274/.413) with 10 home runs and 34 RBI. Though some aspects of his performance behind the plate are average-to-poor, his framing is in Baseball Savant's 90th percentile.

It's unclear exactly how Higgy will fit into the Padres' catching staff, which sports Brett Sullivan and Luis Campusano on their 40-man after Austin Nola was non-tendered and Gary Sanchez's future in free agency is still undetermined, though reports have indicated that the Padres may be angling toward a reunion with Sanchez. If he does return to San Diego, a Sanchez/Higashioka main/backup catcher reunion seems highly plausible.

Drew Thorpe

Pitching prospect Drew Thorpe was a second round pick for the Yankees in 2022, ranked as their No. 7 prospect and MiLB's 99th overall. In his first year in the minors, he pitched 139 1/3 innings, 109 in High-A with the Hudson Valley Renegades and the rest in Double-A with the Somerset Patriots for a 2.52 ERA and an impressive 182 strikeouts on the year. With an ETA of 2025 for a landing in the major leagues, Thorpe is working quickly through the minor league system and was coveted by the Yankees for his status as their second most promising pitching prospect after Chase Hampton.

The draw to Thorpe is his changeup, which attracted scouts to him in the first place while he was playing in college at Cal Poly. He was recruited there as a two-way player; before we get too excited, it seems like that instinct/skill set isn't being nurtured in the minor leagues, but he's been able to focus in on his arsenal, which includes a fastball and slider along with the changeup. MLB Pipeline predicts he'll fit right into a starting role toward the middle of a rotation.

Jhony Brito

One of two young, versatile, perhaps lesser-known major league pitchers the Padres are getting from the Yankees is Jhony Brito, who pitched 90.1 innings this year, his first in the majors. He started 13 games, closed one, and appeared in relief in 11 others for a 4.28 ERA. His first few months, when he was put into a backend rotation starter, were rocky to say the least. With an ugly 2/3 innings pitched in his third start, he gave up six hits and seven runs with one home run, and may have been tipping pitches throughout. Brito spent a good deal of the season going up and down from the majors to Triple-A and back again, but steadied considerably after he was called back up for the final time this year on Aug. 11.

From August through the end of the season, he appeared entirely in a long relief role and his ERA settled, going from 5.17 at the end of July to 4.28 to end the year, and featuring a stellar 1.06 over 17 innings in September. Maybe Brito's struggles at the beginning of the season could be attributed to growing pains, and it'll be up to the Padres to see if they want to entrust starts to him, but he's clearly a capable reliever who can pitch multiple innings to preserve the rest of the bullpen.

Randy Vásquez

Like Brito, Randy Vásquez appeared as both a starter and reliever for the Yankees this year. He turned in fewer innings (37 2/3) but also fared better during them, finishing the year with a 2.87 ERA. It seems that the Yankees wanted to ease Vásquez in slower than Brito; the former made his first start on May 26 and, despite the fact that he did a decent job over 4 2/3 innings (he gave up four hits, two runs, and struck out six), was optioned back to Triple-A for a few weeks until his second start on June 8. He became a more consistent presence in September with six appearances, one as a start.

Also like Brito, the Yankees were evidently eager to use Vásquez as a multi-inning reliever who could hold down games or occasionally appear as an opener on a bullpen day. The Padres, who desperately need more bullpen arms, might be more likely to use both Brito and Vásquez in relief roles, but the fact that they're coming with flexibility and versatility is a huge upside to their inclusion in this deal.

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Meet the new San Diego Padres after Juan Soto trade with New York Yankees