I want to preface this post by stating the facts. Juan Soto has been a huge help to the New York Yankees this year. He currently has a 6.5 WAR, 27 home runs, 74 RBIs, and leads the league in both runs and walks. He's having an incredible season, and I bet the Yankees are really glad they traded for him.
But across the country in San Diego, the Padres are competing, and it's thanks in part to a lot of the pieces they got in exchange for Soto. They already had a lot of great pieces, but the deals they made this past offseason, like getting Dylan Cease and re-signinng Jurickson Profar, or even swinging Luis Arraez a few months ago, have made them a stronger, more formidable team than everyone thought heading into 2024. So let's examine how some of the people they got in exchange for Soto are doing.
Michael King: Of all the Soto returns, this was the one that I thought would be the toughest to replace. Michael King was not only an adept starter in New York, but he was extremely flexible, and could also be an excellent longman. The Padres looked at King the same way they looked at Seth Lugo: a longman with legs that could be turned into a great starter. And so King essentially taking the place of Lugo and doing what he did last year only better shouldn't be too surprising. King in 2024 has been stellar, with a 9-6 record, a 3.26 ERA, and 144 strikeouts. He currently has the highest WAR in San Diego with 2.8, which...is pretty damning considering that Tatis and Machado are on this team. But he's been everything the Padres wanted, and he could be a big piece of forthcoming Padres rotations.
Kyle Higashioka: Clearly the Yankees thought the Wells/Trevino combo would work better, and it sort of has, but Higgy has been decent behind the plate in SD. So far, as a backup for Luis Campusano, Higashioka is hitting .227 with 12 home runs and 32 RBIs. He has a higher OPS than Campusano, and he's also better on defense than Campusano. Yes, Campusano's the younger option that they wanna smooth out, but Higgy's arguably been more effective as a backup here than he has been as a backup in New York for the last few years. He's not a huge piece, but he's been responsible for some subtle improvements to this team.
Randy Vazquez: Of the two Yankee pitching youngsters, he's seen the most time this year, and has started 14 games in the majors. The results have been mixed, with a 3-5 record, a 4.17 ERA and only 44 Ks. But he's still getting his reps in and coming into his own. It's just odd to me that he looked more formidable last year in New York than he does now. I guess put him next to Darvish, Cease, Waldron and King and he doesn't look that powerful.
Jhony Brito: Arguably the better of the two guys that started at the MLB level last year, Brito just hasn't gotten on well with this organization. So far he's been used solely as a reliever, and has a 4.25 ERA in 25 games. And so at the moment he's back in the minors.
Drew Thorpe: As discussed he was immediately swapped to the White Sox for Dylan Cease. He WAS doing well, and then the Mariners kicked the shit out of him the other day, so he's been humbled a little.
The combined WAR of the guys that the Yankees gave to the Padres is 4.8. That's honestly not bad, and between King and Higgy they actually got some decent pieces. Soto, meanwhile, is one of the reasons the Yankees are still competent this year. So even if there was some net loss in the pitching category, they didn't give up anything too pricey, at least not at this point.
Coming Tomorrow- A guy that knows how to hit my team where it hurts.
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