Dream's not dead: Phillies still have outside chance at Juan Soto due to personal connections
By Austin Owens
While baseball fans across the globe are patiently waiting Spring of 2025 for on-field excitement, they are currently anxious for superstar slugger Juan Soto to ink a massive deal. After falling just short of a World Series title with the New York Yankees, Soto entered free agency and has his eyes on an historic contract.
Obviously all 30 teams would love to add a player like Soto to their roster but only a handful of teams have the capacity for this fantasy to become a reality. The New York Yankees, Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox are at the top of the list. However, there may be one other team that has an outside chance of acquiring Soto: the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Bryce Harper could recruit Juan Soto to the Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies finally broke Atlanta's consecutive division title streak and captured a National League East regular season championship in 2024 with a record of 95-67. After the Phillies were defeated in the postseason by an unlikely opponent, division rival New York Mets, they will be looking for revenge in 2025. Soto could provide them with a great opportunity to do just that.
Signing Soto will be difficult for the Phillies because of the $700+ million pay day he is looking for, however, a personal connection could make this more of a possibility.
Soto was teammates with both Bryce Harper and Trea Turner earlier in his career with the Washington Nationals earlier in his career. While this trio was not together when the Nationals won the World Series in 2019, they still had a high level of success in Washington.
Having this three on the same team once again along with players like Kyle Schwarber could create a new World Series favorite. It doesn't seem likely but never say never when personal connections are involved.