St. Louis Cardinals reportedly finalists in the Juan Soto sweepstakes

The St. Louis Cardinals appear to be one of the last teams remaing in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, according to Bob Nightengale.

Nightengale reported this morning that the final four teams with aggressive offers for Soto included the Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Reading the tea leaves a bit here, the Mariners and Dodgers have seemed to tail off a bit in most national reports, making it seem more like a two-horse race between St. Louis and San Diego for Soto at this point.

According to Buster Olney though, the Padres appear to be the front runners at the moment in eyes of executives around the league.

If you have been following this story closely, you would know things change rapidly in terms of front runners and what the Nationals are thinking. While at this point it does appear to be either San Diego or St. Louis, it is really hard to tell where Washington is leaning in any talks.

It benefits the Nationals the most to have executives spreading information about who has the best offers out there. For many days, St. Louis was the perceived favorite, which likely put pressure on San Diego to up their offer. Now with the reports about the Padres, Washington is probably hoping the Cardinals get in a bidding war with the NL West contenders.

While there are still dominoes that need to fall in this sweepstakes, there are becoming clear details across the board about both the Padres’ and Cardinals’ offers, so let’s look at where things stand right now.