3 teams that will come to regret not trading for Juan Soto

The New York Yankees recently landed Juan Soto and Trent Grisham in a blockbuster trade, which involved five outgoing pieces. The San Diego Padres hit the reset button and clear cap space. The Yankees anchor the middle of their lineup with two of the best hitters in modern baseball history.

Watching Soto and Aaron Judge trade moonshots in Yankee Stadium will be quite the treat, unless you're of the anti-Yankee disposition (and who could blame you, really). Soto is 25 years old, coming off a dominant season in which he played all 162 games, slashing .275/.410/.519 with 35 home runs and 109 RBIs in 568 ABs.

New York's offense toiled in the MLB's basement all of last season. Soto is as close to a one-man solution as the Yankees can get, not to mention the arrival of Alex Verdugo in a seperate trade. After panicking about the lack of outfield talent behind Judge for a year, New York fans can rest easy.

Of course, the Yankees weren't the only team involved in Soto trade talks. The highest bidder won, which begs the question — why didn't anybody beat the Yankees' offer? Soto is a bonafide superstar in the dawn of his prime. Sure, he's on an expiring contract, but it's worth the risk to land a 25-year-old MVP candidate when the intention to re-sign him exists.

Here are a few teams who dropped the ball on this one.

3. Red Sox could have flipped NYY-BOS rivalry on its head with Juan Soto trade

The primary offseason move from the Boston Red Sox so far has been flipping Alex Verdugo for Tyler O'Neill. Craig Breslow was brought in to reinvigorate the Boston franchise after the failed Chaim Bloom era, and there's still time for the Red Sox to make a big splash. The clock is ticking, however.

Juan Soto was an obvious must-get trade candidate for the majority of MLB teams, but Boston is more sensible than most. The Red Sox are a prestige franchise with a history of some of baseball's top hitters dominating Fenway Park — a stadium that is particularly friendly to lefty sluggers like Soto.

Boston, too, has questions to address in the outfield and on offense. The Red Sox finished 20th in runs scored last season. Much has been made about the need to boost the pitching rotation around Chris Sale and Brayan Bello, but the Red Sox also need more power bats. Soto would have cost an arm and a leg, but again, he's one of the few MLB players unequivocally worth a farm system liquidation.

Soto would have addressed a position of need, too. Boston has been involved to varying degrees in the Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pursuits, but Soto should have been a legitimate focus of the front office too. The Soto sweepstakes quickly boiled down to two-horse race between New York and Toronto. Now, the Red Sox are losing ground in the AL East, rather than gaining it.