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Juan Soto turned down the Washington nationals offer of a contract that would pay him a total of $440 million dollars. Now there were two different reports on how long the contract was, but it was either for 11 years or 15 years. Either way it would’ve been a very good payday for Soto.

Interestingly now that Soto has turned down the Nationals offer Washington has made it known that they would now listen to trade offers for Soto. You have to wonder what kind of a package the Nationals would ask for in return for Soto and how many teams could meet their asking price.

Soto is only 23 years old and doesn’t turn 24 until October, but this is his fifth year in the major leagues. Adding to Soto’s asking price is the fact that he isn’t eligible for free agency until 2025. That means whatever team acquires him they’d have him under control for two full seasons. That would give Soto’s new team some time to try and sign him long term.

Obviously when a player like Soto comes onto the trade market every contender is interested in trying to make a deal for him, but which team has a strong enough minor league system to get this deal done?

When you start talking about teams with quality minor league systems the first team that seems to come up is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers were ranked 5th overall among minor league systems coming into this season. Would they be willing to part with a large number of their prospects to trade for a player like Soto?

Now of course there was talk of Soto being traded to either New York team be it the Mets or the Yankees, but I seriously doubt that will happen.

In the case of the Mets, I don’t think that the nationals would send Soto to another National League East team unless the package was just overwhelming and the Mets don’t have the farm system to do that. Coming into this season the Mets minor league system was ranked 20th, so there would be quite a few teams that could probably offer Washington better packages for Soto than the Mets will be able to.

The Yankees have expressed interest in adding an outfielder and Soto will easily be the best outfielder available, but can the Yankees find the pieces to make this deal? The Yankees farm system was ranked 13th coming into this season, so they’re in the top half of baseball. The Yankees seem to be loaded with top shortstops in their minor league system, so maybe they could put enough of them together in a trade to land Soto.

Now the teams ahead of the Dodgers rankings wise coming into this season are the Arizona Diamondbacks at #4, the Tampa Bay Rays at #3, the Seattle Mariners at #2 and the Baltimore Orioles had the top ranked farm system coming into this season.

Now the Diamondbacks wouldn’t be interested in trading for Soto as they’re in the middle of a rebuild themselves, but the other three teams could be possibilities.

It’s doubtful Tampa Bay would be able to sign Soto long term for the kind of money he’ll be looking for, but is it possible that they might be interested in renting him for a couple of seasons?

The mariners were expected to win this season and it took them a while to get going, but they headed into the All-Star break on a 14-game winning streak. Seattle’s general manager Jerry Dipto always seems to be looking to make a deal, so maybe this could be Soto’s landing spot.

What about the Orioles? Baltimore has probably been the biggest surprise in baseball heading into the All-Star break. The Orioles are .500 at 46-46 and while they’re 18 games behind the Yankees in the American League East they’re just 3 1/2 games out of a wild card spot. Could parting with a large number of prospects to get and hopefully sign Soto be the move that puts Baltimore’s rebuild over the hump?

It’s going to be tough for Nationals fans to watch a player like Soto be traded, but if Washington can acquire the right players in return for Soto, they can turn things around quickly and contend sooner rather than later.

So let me know where you think that Soto is going to end up. Or is it at all possible that he plays the next couple of seasons in Washington and then tries his luck on the free agent market.

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.