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SAN DIEGO — Juan Soto sat in a rolling chair emblazoned with the San Diego Padres logo and raised his leg high enough that Fernando Tatis Jr. could see his red and white cleats from his chair a few lockers away.
“Look at these!” Soto said Wednesday, and Tatis laughed at the combination of red and white with Soto’s fresh brown socks. Brown and gold wedges are expected soon. But the first day of the rest of Juan Soto’s career would include a reminder of all those days spent in Washington, a baseball world away.
“I never thought they would. I thought they would try to keep me and try to rebuild the team with me in it. It surprised me,” Soto said in the Padres clubhouse as he laced up the other cleat. The New York Mets were beating the Nationals on a television set a few feet away. “Deep down in my heart I thought they wouldn’t.”
That Soto ended up there, joking with friend and fellow young superstar Tatis, introducing infielder Ha-Seong Kim with a “nice to meet you” and talking Max Scherzer’s repertoire with catcher Austin Nola is a transformative development for the team he left and the team he joined. It could prove transformative for Soto and Josh Bell as well.
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Less than 24 hours after boarding a private plane to San Diego paid for by the Padres, Soto and Bell found themselves sandwiched with superstar Manny Machado in the rival team’s lineup under the California sun.
“To come away from a team that has no chance to make it this far, it’s a great feeling,” Soto said. “This is a new beginning for me. This year is just a new start, a new feeling to go out there and give more of what I have.”
Before anyone could worry about getting out there at all, both were transported through Petco Park for social media photos and introductory interviews, sitting next to general manager AJ Preller and owner Peter Seidler.
Preller introduced Soto with a story about when the Padres’ assistant general manager learned the young star was hitting in Point Loma, not far away. He had flown there after his successful rookie season to work with a hitting coach, “working on his craft,” Preller said. Preller remembered the team’s pursuit of Soto when he was a teenager in the Dominican Republic — a pursuit that ended, he joked, with Preller rating someone else over him. But Preller pointed to that hitting session in January as the moment he decided his team would do everything they could to get him if they could.
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The general manager also joked that Bell — the hitter with a .877 slugging percentage plus strikeouts entering Wednesday — “isn’t bad for scoring,” before clarifying that Bell is much more than that. From that moment on, Soto’s smile stole the afternoon. He showed it when asked about the Padres lineup, which is still waiting for Tatis to return from injury and still waiting for Machado to heat up again.
“I wish the other pitchers luck,” Soto said with a smile.
He showed it again when he explained that pitcher Nick Martinez, who wore No. 22 with the Padres until a few hours ago, had asked him for a fishing boat in exchange for the number.
“He really surprised me. I had never seen anything like it. I had seen several guys trying to get the numbers and what they gave out. But when he asked me for a boat, I was really shocked and surprised,” Soto said. “I thought that was too much, but I tried to explain to him that I would try to buy him a really nice watch and he accepted.”
The ramifications of Soto ending up in this lineup after a calendar year in which he was a major focus of every opponent’s game plan could extend far beyond a few more smiles. His new manager, Bob Melvin, said he wasn’t sure what order Soto, Machado and Bell would hit, but he expected Soto and Bell to feel a difference right away, not just because of the at-bats around them, but because of the energy of Petco Park.
“I’ll keep walking. I’m not going to try to be a superhero,” Soto said. “But it will definitely be more exciting. There will be more opportunities to bring boys home. I’ll have more chances to win games.”
A person close to Soto said he became demoralized at times with the Nationals, worried that a disappointing first half (he was hitting .246 at the time of the trade — nearly 50 points shy of his career average) would become even more so. -disappointing if Washington trades everyone else but keeps him. After the trade, he expressed his excitement at being able to play “real baseball” again, this person said.
Soto’s arrogance never wavered. But here, with talent and energy around him again, he might just soar.
“That’s what we talked about when I was talking to these guys: They’re going to feel the excitement on that field,” Melvin said. “It’s always exciting, but today will probably be taken to another level. We will all feel it.”
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Soto has never played for a major league manager not named Dave Martinez, and he will notice that, too. He admitted that saying goodbye to Martinez just before he left Nationals Park on Tuesday was one of the hardest parts of a long day that began with him waking up to a call from agent Scott Boras telling him that this time it was likely an exchange occurred. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo also called him, telling him nothing was official, but something was in the works. He said he was still surprised when it happened, even though Boras explained the reason for the deal to him, even though he’s learned over the past few months that no one is immune to the business of baseball.
“I have no ill feelings towards these guys. I still feel good about what they did for me. This is the first team, my first team, the team that makes me a professional player,” Soto said. “They gave me a chance to come to the big leagues. They made me a great champion. I will always be grateful for that. No offense to all of that.”
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Soto hopes some brown and gold wedges will arrive soon. In the meantime, he wandered around the club with those red and whites, shaking hands with new teammates. At one point he stopped and looked to his right, noticing Belle’s new locker on the other side of the club.
“JB!” he said as he walked by, taking a slightly more circuitous route back to his own locker than he probably would in a week.
When he ran onto the field at Petco Park for the first time, he pointed to the fans in the stands as he did at Nationals Park. He seemed a little hesitant. And they too. But four pitches into his Padres career, he was safely at first base. Five hits into his Padres career, he had scored a run. After all, for Soto, home is a major leaguer’s box, whatever color his cleats are as they shuffle through the dirt.
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