Whicker: Strong return in Soto trade leading Nats back into contention
Outfielder James Wood, one of the prospects the Washington Nationals received when they dealt Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres in 2022, has 19 home runs and is leading the majors with 63 runs this season.
June 13, 2026
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
Tarik Skubal has returned to the Tigers. He was supposed to be out for months, but only missed five weeks after having “loose bodies” removed.
Reportedly, Texas Senatorial candidate Ken Paxton has consulted Skubal’s doctors to find out how. Skubal’s tightened-up elbow makes him Target No. 1 in this summer’s edition of Let’s Make A Deal. The back-to-back Cy Young Award winner would be at the top of nearly every rotation in baseball and would, on paper, drastically improve the chances of the Blue Jays, Padres, Diamondbacks and Brewers. And even though the Yankees, Dodgers and Phillies don’t need Skubal as desperately, that’s never stopped their pursuits.
In acquiring Skubal, and then signing him long-term, one of those franchises will endear itself to its ticket base and its clubhouse. But this is an opportunity for the Tigers, too. Trading for Skubal and picking up three everyday players, or three kids who can become such players, could empower Detroit in the A.L. Central for the long term. There are examples of how that can work, how a white-flag deal can actually become a white paper for contention. The best illustration might be found in Washington.
Juan Soto had announced himself to baseball when he drove in 110 runs for the Nationals as a 20-year-old. They won the World Series in that 2019 season. Soto maintained his sky-high trajectory, but had trouble with health. The Nationals gave Stephen Strasburg everything but an arch and a ballroom after that season, and he gave them eight appearances in the next three seasons. The owners, understandably, wanted to sell the club, and Soto became the most prized asset.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres were consumed by ambition, an odd place for them. They sensed opportunities to make the playoffs, and they chased Soto harder than anybody. They caught him by sending Washington a massive Doordash package that featured shortstop CJ Abrams, outfielder James Wood and lefthander MacKenzie Gore at the 2022 trade deadline.
Soto responded by hitting .236 in 52 games and getting booed by the same fans who waved palm fronds upon his debut. The Padres did gather themselves and won their way to the N.L. Championship Series, and in 2023 Soto played all 162 games and had 35 homers, 109 RBIs and a .930 OPS. But Soto wasn’t simpatico with some of the other Padres stars, like Manny Machado, and it was obvious that he wasn’t interested in signing there long-term. San Diego unloaded him to the Yankees for the 2024 season, and now Soto is with the Mets for 15 years and $765 million, the highest contract in the history of American professional sports. He got a late start to the season but has a .931 OPS. Meanwhile, the Mets were 30-38 going into Friday’s play.
How did the Padres come out? Well, they’re 35-32 and in line for a playoff spot, but that is borderline miraculous, considering how gently their hitters have treated the baseball. They are the only team in the National League that isn’t averaging four runs per game, and their .218 batting average, their .291 on-base percentage and their .350 slugging percentage are league lows.
Machado is hitting .172. He has 22 singles in 65 games. Jackson Merrill, so promising two years ago as a 21-year-old rookie centre fielder, is hitting .207. Fernando Tatis Jr., the Ex-Next Face Of The Game, has two home runs. The Padres only owe him $271 million to the end of the 2034 season.
Oh, what they wouldn't give to have two dynamic young hitters leading the way. You know, like Abrams and Wood.
From nearby Rockville, Md., Wood leads the majors with 62 runs and leads the N.L. in walks with 56. He might not ever get on baseball’s Rushmore but he could certainly pose as the mountain, at 6-foot-6 and 234 pounds. His power was no secret, even in the Padres’ low minors, and he has 19 home runs, but he is showing the ability to spot his own jagged edges and smooth them out. Last year he led everyone in baseball with 221 strikeouts. He still has 97 so far this year, but he has improved his OBP to .408, and his OPS has improved to .953. Respect? He also leads the N.L. with seven intentional walks.
Abrams also has a cloud to dispel. For years he’s been known as the least stable defensive shortstop in the game, which inflames trade rumors. But Abrams, a former first-round pick from the Atlanta area, is erasing every mistake with a lively bat. His OPS of .748 last year was a career high. Now he’s at .895, with 14 home runs and 51 RBIs, and he’s hitting .284.
Gore, another high pick, is no longer in Washington. The Nationals sent him to Texas for five minor leaguers, one of whom is rigthhander Gavin Fien, a former No. 12 pick in the draft. Gore is 27 with a career record of 30-46 and a career WHIP of nearly 1.4.
He will be given every chance to fulfill his template, but the Nationals suddenly don’t feel like waiting.
They came into Saturday’s game with a 35-35 record and a true chance to make the playoffs. They have lost 91 games in each full season since the champagne of 2019. In the off-season, 36-year-old Paul Toboni became the general manager and, because he didn’t want to be the Old Guy, hired 33-year-old Blake Butera as the manager. Butera is the youngest major league skipper but was already the youngest minor league manager in history at 25, in the Tampa Bay organization. He won a pennant in every classification.
Butera was the nuts-and-bolts guy for the Italian team in the World Baseball Classic, managed nominally by Mike Piazza. The Dodgers’ Hall of Fame catcher heartily recommended Butera to Toboni. The watchwords among today’s pro athletes are “communication” and “positivity,” when it comes to accepting a coach or a manager, and Butera is well-versed, although he did watch the Nationals blow a 9-1 lead to the Giants in the final two innings the other day and informed them, later, that “this loss should really sting.”
That’s the area that the Nationals need to address. They lead the league, unfortunately, in percentage of inherited runners to score, and only Colorado has given up more runs per game in the N.L. But in the spirit of starting somewhere, the Nationals have found a recycled gem in lefthander Foster Griffin, who was Kansas City’s first-round pick 12 years ago. He stalled there, was traded to Toronto, stalled there and has spent the last three seasons in Japan. Since his return, Griffin is 7-2 with a 1.090 WHIP in 14 starts.
Otherwise, Butera is leaning into the “opener” mode of pitching and has no designated closer. Therefore, the bullpen is a bit of an unmade bed. The Nationals also have walked 3.7 batters every nine innings.
Still, there are reasons to ride the Metro to Nationals Park again, and certainly there’s less frustration in that stadium than in the generally sold-out confines of Petco Park. This is not to say that teams shouldn’t push in their chips for Tarik Skubal. Just make sure that the bodies you’re letting loose aren’t carrying your lifeblood with them.