The Yankees should take this into account when deciding whether to trade Juan Soto.

LOS ANGELES – Enter the room. See both sides. Because that’s what the Yankees will have to do. This is what Brian Cashman will have to organize. What Hal Steinbrenner will ultimately have to think about and decide.

In the end, it’s not an easy decision how far you have to go to try and land Juan Soto. When it comes to common sense — what it would cost in terms of prospects, the future value of those prospects, and the dollars to have Soto during his period of control and possibly far into the future — recommending such a deal is almost reckless.

But there are times when you have to be reckless. Soto is the strongest in the game. He did not flinch at the most important moments. He is only 23 years old. He is under team control if acquired now, within three pennant races. And players like him – his skill, youth and composure – Halley’s comet in the trading market.

This is my take on the top 10 players traded in the past five years (based on player perception at the time of the trade): Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt, Francisco Lindor, Manny Machado, Matt Olson, JT. Realmuto, Giancarlo Stanton, Trea Turner and Christian Yelich (Starling Marte was traded twice during this period and is arguably in the top 10).

Nobody was as young as Soto. Arenado and Stanton were tied to expensive long-term contracts. Betts, Goldschmidt, Lindor, and Machado were entering their party years. Olson, Realmuto and Turner had two or less years of control. Jelic had four years plus the ability to control the team contract, but was not yet considered an elite (for example, he was a zero-time All-Star at the time of the deal).

So consider bringing back these players and understand for Soto that you will shed more blood. Or, as one of the top managers of AL said: “If you say [the Nationals] that you’re taking your best prospect off the table, they should tell you to go [bleep] yourself and hang up.

Now back to the Yankees. Unless the Nationals rank the Yankees system differently, Anthony Wolpe should be one of four or five painful pieces to move. Can you stand it? The Yankees haven’t talked about the combination of skills and make-up in the prospectus the way they talk about Volpe, perhaps since Derek Jeter.

But championships are forever, and Soto is increasing the Yankees’ chances of winning the 2022-2024 season to justify what they gave back (no matter how painful it was). However, at the very least, let’s move on to the pro/con game that Steinbrenner, Cashman, and the Yankees’ leadership will have to play in deciding how far to go with the Soto proposal:

AGAINST

Over the past 24 months, the Yankees have sold many promising capitals, including Joey Gallo, Anthony Rizzo and Jameson Tylon. They still have a strong system, but the Soto deal will destroy its top. They ignored the free agency market, in part because they thought Volpe and/or Oswald Perasa would take its place by 2023.

All in all, one non-Yanke executive estimated that roughly $150 million of projected future value would have to be turned over to the Nats before paying the $65 million Soto would earn from here just for free rein.

In addition, the Yankees went into recess after averaging the most goals scored and the fewest runs conceded, as well as leading the field in defensive performance. The Baseball Handbook gave the Yankees a 30.3 percent chance of winning the World Series (the Dodgers were second at 22.8 percent).

With such a good team, the Yankees should increase plus subtract Joey Gallo, not deprive the system.

PRO

Projection systems are fickle. Fangraphs actually has the Dodgers with the best World Series winning percentage (16.9), followed by the Yankees (14.3), Mets (14.2) and Astros (14.1). Soto turns the odds, and the Yankees have to face the fact that if they don’t catch him, then the Dodgers or the Mariners or the Cardinals or whoever they might see in the future will.

Matt Carpenter played four times against the Astros. The Yankees should doublehead him just to see if his left bat matters. Perhaps, after all, the Yankees have added the most effective bat to the left team this year. But there is a risk that Carpenter will not turn back into a pumpkin. Soto has zero gourd factor.

The Yankees start the second half with a doubleheader in Houston. They have to assume that the path to the World Series is there, and their offense has been halted by the Astros’ rotation this year despite splitting four games in New York and losing one at Minute Maid Park. The Yankees hit .093 against Houston starters in those five games.

As Gerrit Cole pointed out Monday, his 2019 Astros never figured out how to pitch Soto throughout their seven-game World Series loss to Washington, in which Soto hit .333 with three homers and 1,178 OPS. In the best of all worlds, make opponents deal with Carpenter and Soto, as well as Aaron Judge and Stanton and DJ LeMaye, etc.

The Dodgers, the Yankees from the West Coast, hardly care about excess. Even while in the elite, they traded for Betts, Machado, Turner, Max Scherzer and Yu Darvish and signed with Freddie Freeman. Nevertheless, their farming system remained strong. The Yankees’ job is to keep finding quality players to use as needed. Wolpe was selected 30th overall in the draft, and Judge was selected 32nd overall. Peraza was signed for $175,000 from Venezuela. Find more and remember that any loss of prospects can be surmounted – gosh, the Dodgers traded Jordan Alvarez for Josh Fields and have continued to be an NL team to beat for years.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo is a scout at heart, and that decision may depend on who he’s been into over the years. Many executives believe he was obsessed with the Dodgers in the Scherzer-Turner trade at the latest trade deadline because catcher Cabert Ruiz was by far his #1 target. Does it apply to Wolpe the same way, or to anyone else in the Yankees system?

If that’s the case, the Yankees – as painful as it is – should do it. In the short term, he will pair Soto with Judge. It also provides protection if Judge goes free after the season. If Judge stays in office long term, the Yankees will be able to play Soto until 2024 and see how they feel financially after that, whether to trade him or not (for example, at that point, the Yankees will owe just three years of 66 million dollars for Stanton). , making it more attractive to strike another big long-term deal with Cole and Judge).

The game for/against is not one-sided. But the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009. Soto has such a big impact on their chances of ending this drought over the next three years that the people in this Yankee room should vote to get him.