Latest Juan Soto rumors reveal unknown feud with former teammate, but not Aaron Judge

Now that Juan Soto is finally, officially a member of the New York Mets, details are beginning to emerge about the path that led baseball's biggest free agent of all-time to a record 15-year, $765 million deal in Queens. Some of those details are about what you'd expect: Scott Boras kept a tight lid on negotiations, John Henry and the Boston Red Sox cheaped out in the end, the Toronto Blue Jays continue to flail around. One detail in particular, however, came out of nowhere.

As Soto spent the month of November weighing where he'd spent the rest of his MLB career, there was plenty on his mind, from money to organizational vision to comfort level for he and his family. But he also wanted to make sure that he found a superstar he got along with, something that had been a problem in the past. Not with Aaron Judge in New York, or even with Bryce Harper in Washington, but with San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.

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Juan Soto had 'difficult' relationship with Manny Machado in San Diego

In their juicy tick-tock of how the Soto signing went down, ESPN's Jeff Passan and Buster Olney leave no stone unturned. There's plenty to parse through, from Soto's relationship (or lack thereof) with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, to Scott Boras interrupting Steve Cohen at dinner to bring him the good news. But one nugget in particular stood out: While delving into how smoothly Soto and Judge got along during their one year together in the Bronx, Passan and Olney note that this was very much not the case in San Diego in 2022.

"Soto later acknowledged during his November conversations with teams that his previous relationship with a superstar teammate -- in San Diego with the Padres' Manny Machado -- had been difficult, but with Judge, everything seemed to go smoothly."

The story quickly moves on, so we don't get any more context about just what problems Soto had with Machado, when they developed and how they may have manifested on the field. The two were clearly able to put their differences aside for the good of the team: The 2022 Padres won 89 games and made it all the way to the NLCS, while Soto and Machado had the highest OPSes on the roster. But despite that success, it's clear that Soto didn't love the dynamic, and found his no-drama rapport with Judge to be refreshing.

This isn't the first time that the clubhouse vibe in San Diego has been called into question; the team came apart at the seams during a disappointing 2023 season, the culture deteriorating to the point that it cost manager Bob Melvin his job. Things seem far healthier now under Mike Shildt, but if the Padres are looking to add another big bat any time soon, they may have chemistry concerns to worry about.