The Juan Soto experiment hasn’t exactly been going well for the New York Mets, even with the team boasting one of the National League’s best records.
But Soto fired back at some of the verbose members of the Mets fan base who accused him of not hustling during his sixth-inning single in New York’s 3-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
“No,” Soto said when asked if he needs to be more aware of how long it has taken him to get out of the batter’s box. “I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard. If you see it today, you could tell.”
The Mets have dropped four of their past five games and fell out of first place for the first time since April 9. New York trails the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies by a half-game despite sitting at 10 games over .500 and tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the third-best record in the majors.
Despite still boasting highly respectable numbers (.815 OPS, 133 OPS+), Soto is well off his typical pace offensively this year. Part of that is his .128 batting average with runners in scoring position — which was made worse after he grounded into a rally-killing double play in the fourth inning Monday.
Something To Talk About
Soto may believe he has hustled, but the video didn’t lie Monday night.
The right fielder hit a towering fly ball with a 101.9mph exit velocity toward the Green Monster, and he walked down the first-base line before breaking into a trot as the ball hit halfway up the 37-foot-high wall.
Boston left fielder Jarren Duran played the ball perfectly off the wall and fired the ball back in, leaving Soto with a long, and embarrassing, single.
“I hit it pretty hard,” Soto said. “It’s a pretty short Green Monster; I tried to get to second but it wasn’t enough.”
Soto’s mishap Monday came on the heels of his eighth inning at-bat at Yankee Stadium on Sunday night, where after check-swinging on a sharp ground ball to second base, Soto appeared to trot instead of run out of the box.
Yankees second baseman D.J. LeMahieu speared the ground ball, despite a wicked hop, and easily nabbed Soto, who was jogging down the line.
Despite two straight nights of bad base-running looks, the Mets backed Soto’s effort.
“We’ll talk to him about it,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Tonight, obviously, if someone gets a hold of one and knows when he gets it, it’s Juan. He thought he had it. With the wind and all that, in this ballpark — anywhere, in any one, but particularly in this one with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. Yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
Sad Soto
Whether real or exaggerated, Soto’s demeanor is becoming a hot-button issue in the media capital of the world.
Longtime baseball writer Bob Klapisch reported Monday that the Mets are concerned with Soto’s lack of enthusiasm. Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay, who also hosts a drive-time radio show, said Soto is “very, very glum around the Mets clubhouse.”
The Mets of course outbid the Yankees to sign Soto to the richest contract in North American sports history, a 15-year, $765 million deal. Yet, saddled with that contract, which also includes perks and personal security for his family, Soto has stopped doing his famous Soto shuffle on well-taken balls.
He also publicly lamented not having reigning AL MVP, and likely 2025 MVP, Aaron Judge hitting behind him.
“It’s definitely different,” Soto told Mike Puma of the New York Post last month. “I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me. I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that. I was pitched differently last year.”
Soto seems likely to adjust at some point this year. He is also fully aware of New York’s struggles at getting runners in.
“I feel like we’ve got to capitalize as a team,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to come through.”
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