Mets acquire LHP Soto from Orioles to bolster bullpen
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gregory Soto is headed back to the NL East after the New York Mets acquired him from Baltimore on Friday for two minor league pitchers.
Soto was with the Orioles for about a year after they acquired him from Philadelphia at last season's trade deadline. The 30-year-old reliever has a 3.96 ERA with 18 walks and 44 strikeouts in 45 appearances this season. The lefty has held left-handed batters to a .138 batting average.
He’s been even stingier in 21 games since June 4, with left-handed batters 0 for 23.
The Mets sent right-handed pitchers Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster to Baltimore for Soto. An All-Star in 2021 and 2022 with Detroit, Soto is 14-31 with a 4.24 ERA, 187 walks and 394 strikeouts in parts of seven major league seasons. He signed with Detroit in 2012 and is a native of the Dominican Republic.
“We've had off-and-on discussions with Baltimore for the past few weeks. As generally is the case with any trade you go through a whole lot of different names, a whole lot of different constructs and late last night we were able to get to this deal,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said.
Soto has a $5.35 million, one-year contract and can become a free agent after the World Series. The Mets assumed $1,869,624 remaining of his salary, which will cause about $2.06 million in additional luxury tax.
New York started the season with a $330 million tax payroll, second-highest in the major leagues, which projected to owing almost $74 million in tax.
Soto pitched for the Phillies in 2023 and part of 2024.
“It's a big arm, he's pitched in leverage spots,” Stearns said. “We were looking to help complement our bullpen from the left side. It's not always easy to do that this time of year and so as we began to overlap on some names with Baltimore we figured this was the time to push this one through.”
Last-place Baltimore fell to 45-58 with Friday night's loss to visiting Colorado and has shown willingness to sell before Thursday's trade deadline. The Orioles dealt reliever Bryan Baker to AL East rival Tampa Bay this month for the 37th overall pick in the amateur draft.
Baltimore also had to put closer Félix Bautista on the injured list this week, which led to Soto closing out Thursday's win at Cleveland for his first save with the Orioles. He had a career-high 30 saves in 2022 for the Tigers.
“We're just trying to mix and match the best we can,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said following the trade. “I think as you kind of saw some roles formulate when we had Baker here — it was pretty much Seranthony (Domínguez) in the seventh, Baker in the eighth, Felix in the ninth, and then using Soto as kind of like a high-leverage lefty matchup guy, then using (Keegan) Akin as kind of like a bulk lefty guy. It's going to be hard to do that with how we're currently constructed.”
Soto gives the Mets another lefty in the bullpen after Brooks Raley came off the injured list last week.
The Mets entered Friday with a half-game lead in the NL East over Philadelphia.
The 20-year-old Aracena was 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA at Class A in 2025. He's one of two pitchers in the minor leagues this season to have thrown at least 60 innings without yielding a home run. MLB Pipeline had him ranked as the Mets' No. 19 prospect.