Juan Soto Sitting On Pins And Needles As MLB Trade Deadline Nears

Juan Soto is aware that he could be either staying with the Washington Nationals or moving to a new MLB team soon.

The trade deadline clock is winding down, and a better picture of where the Dominican may play will be known at 6:00 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Walking off the field at Nationals Park on Sunday, July 31, the 23-year-old outfielder is acquainted with what may happen in the next couple of days.

But for now, he just wants to get it all over with and be on his way.

“I just want to get it over with and see what’s going to happen,” Soto said after the Nationals’ 5-0 loss to the Cardinals via MLB.com. “I mean, just go over that day and start over here or wherever I’m at.”

Among the teams tipped as favorites to snag the 2019 World Series champion is the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ironically on Sunday, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo and Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak were spotted together at that game.

But even before that, Mozeliak already gave some comments on Soto when he spoke to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I think what’s rare is the timing. We traded for Paul Goldschmidt. We traded for Nolan Arenado. But that’s the only thing about that player. Age,” the Cardinals executive quipped.

In an MLB poll where 17 front-office executives took part, the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers led the favorites to acquire Soto with eight and sevent votes respectively.

St. Louis was also listed but garnered only three votes.

A reason seen as to why the Cardinals would be singled out as a good MLB to trade with is their farm system as they were ranked No. 16 in the preseason.

Aside from that, their roster features several young players with early Major League experience. That includes Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson.

With nothing set in stone, Soto prefers to just focus on what jersey he is wearing for now and worry about other things later on.

“You’re wearing the Nationals jersey. You’re here, and right now, I’m here and I’m a National. So I just go out there as a professional, as a National, and I just play for them as hard as I can,” the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner stated.