Soto could be rounding into form after strong weekend vs. Rockies
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Juan Soto - the richest man in baseball - has not exactly lived up to the hype attached to signing a contract worth $765 million with the New York Mets in the offseason.
But after two months of teammates, coaches and management trying to argue that there's nothing wrong with their star slugger, the results may finally be starting to match the expectations.
The Mets thought they were signing a generational talent who finished top-10 in MVP voting in five of the last six seasons and owned a .953 career on-base plus slugging and a player who hadn't struck out more than he walked since the 2019 season, his second in the majors.
The product on the field hasn't matched that to this point though: Soto's OPS is sitting at .794 through 59 games entering Tuesday, far below his career average and below his previous worst in a season (.853 in 2022 split between the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres).
So what's going on in Queens?
"I honestly don't have a 'This is the issue he needs to fix to get better,’” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said in May.
“He’s human. He’s 26, man,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “He’s going to be fine. He’s Juan Soto.”
The underlying data supports the viewpoint of the manager and team president.
Per Statcast, advanced metrics suggest he's the same old hitter he's always been. He's hitting the ball hard, with a 95th percentile average exit velocity, he owns a 99th percentile walk rate and he's making good contact when he does swing - carrying a 95th percentile hard-hit rate.
With a Statcast page covered in red, finding an explanation for why he's ranked tied-55th in OPS in the majors has been difficult.
"I’ve felt good since day one,” Soto said on Sunday, after hitting a home run in a victory over the Colorado Rockies. “Just the results haven’t been there. For me, finding … some holes or some gaps, we’ve just got to keep working on it.”
There was some drama in May as well, when Soto was called out by Mendoza after a liner off the Green Monster in Boston resulted in a single with Soto taking his time to leave the batter's box.
Still, baserunning has never been a particular strength of Soto's in the majors, and his seven steals this season are currently setting a pace to blow by his career high of 12 in 2019.
There's not a lot of data to suggest why Soto hasn't produced to his regular level. Which is why a recent hot stretch may be providing the spark the team is looking for.
Soto reached base seven times in three games against Colorado, hitting two homers and scoring four times.
“Everybody from the outside keeps saying, ‘Where’s Soto? Where’s Soto?’ We have seen it. He has had good at-bats weekly,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said on Saturday. “I think today, the ball fell for him.”
For a player who has now been booed by home fans in both sides of New York (Soto struggled early with the New York Yankees in his lone season there in 2024), a few more balls falling for him would go a long way to assuaging fan concerns.