Juan Soto Turns Down Nationals’ 15-Year, $440 Million Offer; Team Seeking Trade

LOS ANGELES — A white whale has entered the trade market, offering the potential for a seismic blockbuster deal before MLB’s Aug. 2 trade deadline. 

Superstar outfielder Juan Soto rejected a 15-year, $440 million extension offer from the Nationals, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed on Saturday, opening the door for the team to entertain trade offers for him over the next two-plus weeks. 

Landing Soto would be a game-changer for any contender, but he would also take a haul to acquire, given that the 23-year-old is under contract through 2024. 

Entering Saturday, the left-handed hitting Soto was in the midst of a down year, yet still owned a 160 OPS-plus — 60 percent above league average — with 19 home runs and a league-leading 79 walks to just 54 strikeouts. 

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo has consistently said this year the team would not trade Soto, a franchise cornerstone for the 2019 world champs. But now that Soto has turned down their latest offer that stance may change, especially for a rebuilding team that is facing a potential ownership change in the coming years. 

“I don’t want to keep losing,” Soto told reporters in Washington on Saturday. “I hate losing. But it is what it is. I mean, at the end of the day, we’ve just got to go through it, because as they [teammates] told me, we’ve all got to go through those moments to win a championship. So for me, I think I’m going through mine and I’m just going to keep positive and keep seeing things forward.” 

The Nationals’ offer to Soto did not include deferrals, but it was backloaded, Heyman reported, potentially lessening its true value. 

Though the $440 million offer would have been the biggest overall deal for any player in the history of the game, the $29.33 million average annual value (AAV) would have only ranked 20th overall. 

The current MLB record for highest overall contract is Mike Trout’s 12-year, $426.5 million deal that he signed with the Angels in 2019. The highest AAV is Max Scherzer’s $43.3 million with the Mets, which he signed last offseason on a three-year, $130 million deal. Trout’s $35.5 million AAV is the highest for any position player, a figure that Soto and agent Scott Boras likely will be looking to break. 

Soto, who will play in his second career All-Star Game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, reportedly turned down a 13-year, $350 million contract offer last offseason before the MLB lockout. 

Playing on a $17.1 million contract this season, Soto has two more years of arbitration left after this one before he potentially will hit the open market. Boras clients often bypass extension offers to test free agency, through which they are able to maximize their value.

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