WASHINGTON — When Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is asked to peek into the rearview mirror to the seismic trade deadline in August of 2022, the passage of time changes little.
Superstar Juan Soto, the cornerstone of an eight-player blitz that shipped a load of prospects to the Nationals, has left for Yankees pinstripes.
The Padres reached the 2022 NLCS, but slogged through head-scratching disappointment with a star-crammed clubhouse a season later.
Meanwhile, three of the five prospects the Padres shed became big-league contributors. Shortstop CJ Abrams was named an All-Star this season, prized arm MacKenzie Gore has settled into the rotation and 21-year-old power bat James Wood starts in the outfield.
That’s the price of big-league poker, Preller reckons.
“We know we were trading some players who were going to do some really good things in the big leagues,” he said. “But you’re trading for Juan Soto, an A-lane performer, one of the most impactful forces in the game with control years. You’re going to trade real players to get someone like that.
“From our standpoint, we had a team we felt could win the World Series. We thought we had (Fernando) Tatis coming back (before his performance-enhancing drug suspension). We were a few games away from the World Series in ’22.
“Honestly, I don’t look back at that one with any regrets.”
It was an all-in moment for the Padres. It was a window for the Nationals, who felt they had no shot at signing Soto in free agency, to stock up and hit the reset button.
It changed both franchises in major ways.
“We got a lot of young pieces for one superstar and it seems like some of these pieces could be superstars down the road,” Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin said. “Time will tell.”
No deal, though, is as clean as those directly involved in the moment. There are dominoes, one toppling another as some of the chess pieces evolve and others are used to snap up other pieces.
When Soto bolted for the Yankees, one of the players in return was pitcher Drew Thorpe. The Padres used Thorpe to help leverage a trade for starter Dylan Cease, the team’s current ace.
Soto also led to Preller landing Michael King, a sturdy arm who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning Sunday against the Guardians. In that 2-1 win, catcher Kyle Higashioka — another pickup in the Soto-to-New York deal — drove in both runs.
All part of the big-deal calculus.
“We knew it was going to take a lot to make up for the loss of Juan Soto and his impact,” Preller said ahead of a three-game series between the Padres and Nationals that begins Tuesday here. “But when you acquire a player like Juan, you get him for the ‘now,’ but you also have potential value for the future.”
There’s no doubt the Nationals appreciate the intriguing spot the Padres helped put them in, however.
On Sunday, Wood’s three-run homer in the eighth inning provided the difference in a 5-3 win and sweep of the Reds that left Washington just four games out of a wild-card berth.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys,” Wood said. “It feels like we get to build something of our own.”
At the time of the Soto trade, the differences between the Padres and Nationals of then was stark. San Diego featured huge names and equally large contracts. They were barreled up for now.
To a young player like Abrams, the Nationals presented a doorway.
“I was given the opportunity to play every day here,” Abrams said. “It feels good to be over here with a lot of young guys. We’re pretty tight and bring energy every day. We’re going to be really good, really soon. It’s only up from here.”
The Nationals still could cash in on the two other prospects in the deal. Flamethrower Jarlin Susana, 20, has hit 103 mph on the radar gun. Outfielder Robert Hassell III flashed potential, but has wrestled with injuries.
The Padres picked up first baseman Josh Bell in the deal, but he hit just .192 in San Diego after swinging at a .301 clip in Washington.
Gore, the pitcher, grinned when asked which franchise won the trade.
“I mean, look, you get Juan Soto, you do whatever you can,” Gore said. “I was at that game when (the Padres) beat the Dodgers in the playoffs (in 2022). They went for it, so you’ve got to respect that.
“For us, CJ’s an All-Star. In two years, what does it look like when James figures out who he is and me and CJ keep learning? I think we’re in good spot.”
Corbin helped anchor a stellar rotation that included former San Diego State star Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer when the Nationals won the World Series in 2019.
A ball here or there …
“If they win the World Series, it’s a different story and a for-sure win,” Corbin said of the sense of the Padres’ gamble on Soto. “That’s what you’re trying to fight for. You’ve got to love the teams that when they’re close, they take a risk and give away a couple guys to win it that year.
“You never know if you’ll be back.”
That rearview mirror?
“The fact that we had those guys in our system gave us those options,” Preller said. “That gave us the ability to make that deal.”
There’s a rearview in the other car, too.
“It escalated our rebuild really quick,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “With these guys now, with Wood here, we’re starting to get the pieces we thought would be here.”
Just two years? It can feel like a lifetime.