7:12 a.m.: Major League Baseball’s trade deadline is now less than 12 hours away, and the potential Juan Soto trade that has captivated the entire sport and its fan base remains unresolved. As of yesterday, the Soto auction is widely believed to have been a three-team bidding war, with the Padres, Cardinals and Dodgers heavily listed. That doesn’t rule out another team (or teams) jumping in to make a late push, of course. he would honestly rate it as a surprise if that wasn’t the case, actually. Teams will lose other targets, priorities will rotate, and positions for “off-limits” prospects will soften. Up until this point, a sticking point for the Cardinals has been their reluctance to include young outfielder Dylan Carlson and their top prospect, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets. The 23-year-old Carlson is known to be of interest to the Nats as an immediate plug-in outfielder, and as a former first-round pick and top-10 overall prospect (per Baseball America), that’s no surprise — even if he’s been more of a regular than star at this point in his young career. The switch-hitter Carlson is hitting .260/.334/.426 dating back to last season, and has significantly lowered his strikeout rate this season. Carlson can be controlled for four more years after this season and is capable of handling all three outfield spots. There is perhaps a sense that, given his youth and pedigree, he has another tool that he has yet to tap into. Further clouding the Cardinals’ possibility, Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests Washington might not be as high on left-hander Matthew Liberatore as others in the industry. The Athletic’s Jim Bowden wrote something similar a few weeks ago. As for the Padres, the health of one of their top young guns, southpaw MacKenzie Gore, is a potential complication. Gore is shut down with an elbow strain. He’s expected to avoid surgery, but the specter of a hand injury to a potential starter in the deal has certainly changed the Nats’ valuation. The Padres, meanwhile, are now over the luxury tax threshold after the impressive addition of Josh Hader yesterday. It is said that they did not want to pass that limit for the second season in a row. However, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggests that if it means getting both Hader and Soto, the Padres “wouldn’t mind going completely over” the tax line. In Los Angeles, the Dodgers have grown increasingly optimistic about their chances over the past two days, according to Jack Harris of the LA Times . The Dodgers’ perennially deep farm is loaded with top prospects — they have seven of Baseball America’s top 100 farmhands right now — and they also feature vetted young major leaguers of potential interest. Both Harris and Heyman suggest Gavin Lux (four more years of team control) and righty Dustin May (close to returning from Tommy John surgery, with three more years of control) as potential targets for Washington. As of yesterday morning, the Yankees were listed as a “long shot,” the Rangers were not said to be particularly aggressive, and Mariners president Jerry Dipoto had said his team was unlikely to land Soto. Adding to that list of teams that have inquired but he seems unlikely to be a serious player, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Guardians looked at Soto but talks never gained traction. Washington was interested in top Cleveland prospect Daniel Espino, but health was again a factor in the discussions as he has been out since April with a knee injury.
