Why Juan Soto trade talks were so disappointing for Giants, Farhan Zaidi

SAN DIEGO — Juan Soto came along as the perfect player at the perfect time for the Giants. Tonight, they’ll face him. 

Soto became a San Diego Padre last Tuesday in one of the biggest trades in Major League Baseball history, and the Giants may now have to deal with him for the next two and a half years, and maybe longer if he falls in love with the city — who wouldn’t — and the Padres hand him a $500 million check. 

That’s a problem for the Giants, a significant one, but they might have an even bigger one moving forward as they try and figure out how to compete with the Padres and Dodgers, who match Soto-Tatis Jr.-Machado with Betts-Turner-Freeman. The issue for the Giants right now is that they weren’t even in position to make a realistic run at Soto, a modern-day Ted Williams who could have been the second coming of the franchise-altering Barry Bonds signing in 1993. 

Six months ago, if you had told Giants officials that Soto would become available in mid-July, they might have lined themselves up as the favorite. The industry likely would have, too. 

The Giants have the financial ability to be in on any player of Soto’s caliber, even though they haven’t flexed it the last couple of offseasons. They offered Bryce Harper, another former National, $310 million three years ago, and in the years since they have watched one big salary after another come off their books as the massive Mission Rock development has grown in a parking lot across the cove. 

Before the season, the Giants had a rapidly-improving farm system that could cover the acquisition cost of someone like Soto. But multiple top prospects have stalled, gotten injured or taken a step back, and as Soto became available, they had no real way of matching what A.J. Preller and the Padres ultimately gave up. 

In left-hander MacKenzie Gore, shortstop C.J. Abrams, outfielders Robert Hassell III and James Wood, and right-hander Jarlin Susana, the Padres gave up four of their top seven prospects, per Baseball America. Gore has graduated from prospect lists, but Abrams (No. 11), Hassell (25) and Wood (39) are all high up on Baseball America’s current top 100.

Gore, currently on the IL with elbow soreness, is a 23-year-old lefty who many considered to be the game’s best pitching prospect a couple years ago, and he has had a promising rookie year. 

Comparing unproven players in their early twenties is not an apples-to-apples game, but the Giants could have matched the Gore-Abrams duo with Marco Luciano (No. 18) and Kyle Harrison (No. 19), their two best prospects. Both have had good years but the development has not been there for others who might have filled out a proposed Soto trade.

The player immediately behind those two coming into the season was Joey Bart, who has had a rough rookie season at the plate. Next up was Luis Matos, who was rising fast after 2021 but was hitting just .177 in High-A at the time of the trade. He was followed by 2021 first-rounder Will Bednar, who hasn’t dominated Low-A as hoped and is currently on the IL. 

The preseason top five was rounded out by Heliot Ramos, who had a .644 OPS in Triple-A on deadline day. Jairo Pomares had a .696…