The San Diego Padres
The Padres are another team with a good farm system that would be a great fit for Juan Soto.
For their outfield, Wil Myers is on the injured list and hasn’t been great. Trent Grisham hasn’t been great either. Jurickson Profar has been injured recently and in his last 20 games, he is only hitting .197.
Nomar Mazara has been good since he got the call up from the minors earlier in the year but Soto would be a major upgrade.
Also, having a lineup with Soto, Manny Machado, and a healthy Fernando Tatis Jr. would be a lineup that might be able to compete with the Dodgers and maybe even knock them out of the NL West lead.
The Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are in the middle of a rebuild but owner Tom Ricketts has shown that he is willing to spend some money. This past offseason, the Cubs signed starting pitcher Marcus Stroman and Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzki. While they are still a long way from contention, Stroman’s contract shows that they want to compete. Trading for Soto would help push that forward.
The Cubs also have a strong farm system (FanGraphs had their system as the sixth-best in the sport in their mid-season update).
The Cubs also have plenty of payroll space since their payroll is about $60 million lower than it was in 2019 (the last non-pandemic season).