For Mets, no easy answer to Juan Soto puzzle
Juan Soto of the New York Mets before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns spoke a lot about self-awareness when he addressed the media Friday afternoon before that night's game against the Rockies.
The team is acutely aware of its failures with runners in scoring position and understands that its uncharacteristic defensive miscues need to be remedied.
And then there's Juan Soto — the subject of seven of the first eight questions posed to Stearns in the wide-ranging but at times hyper-focused 25-minute news conference.
The way Stearns framed it, the $765 million man is as aware as any of them. He’s got no choice, really — not when he’s the subject of such breathless scrutiny, and not when he’s yet to show the parts of his game that made him the most coveted free agent since Shohei Ohtani.
“He's working,” Stearns said. “He's trying. He certainly wants results at a higher level than what we've seen so far. I'm pretty confident we're going to get those. But I also understand it is natural that when a player signs a big contract — and this was a really big contract — if the results aren't immediate, there are going to be questions and there are going to be reactions. And I completely get that. I think Juan does, too.”
“I know I’m struggling,” Soto said after going 2-for-4 with an RBI double in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Rockies. “I haven’t been there for them, but I will be.”
Soto came into the day with a .224/.352/.393 slash line, eight homers, 25 RBIs and a woeful .130 average with runners in scoring position. He’s frustrated, he understands he’s underperforming, and even a player who long has shone brightly while under pressure must feel the onus of that record-breaking contract.
But there’s another narrative that has followed Soto around, too.
“He’s in a really good place,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The results haven’t been there, but he’s going to get going.”
Asked if there is anything Soto needs to change, Stearns responded, “I honestly don't have a 'like this is the issue he needs to fix to get better . . . '
“I think, I think he's taking pretty good at-bats. He's controlling the strike zone pretty well, hitting the ball on the ground a little bit more than he has in the past. I think that’s something he’s aware of . . . Do I think he's trying to do a little bit too much right now? Yeah, I think he's probably trying to do a little bit too much right now. And that is natural for a player who cares about improving.”
But maybe the Mets need to take a page out of their superstar’s book and have a little more awareness themselves.
While it’s true that Soto appears to be astronomically unlucky — his expected slash line, partially based on quality of contact, is .294/.420/.569, and the differentials between those numbers and what actually has occurred are some of the biggest in baseball — the quality of his at-bats has lagged of late.
His bat speed is down and his patience at the plate has, at times, veered into tentativeness. He’s swung at a career-low 54.6% of pitches in the strike zone this season, and at 19.3% of first pitches.
A lot of this is understandable. If balls aren’t falling in — and they legitimately seemed as if they weren’t, especially early on — you try to compensate. And Soto has plenty he can compensate with: He’s got an otherworldly eye, so drawing walks certainly is a tool at his disposal. He’s been trying to steal bases (he’s up to seven and his career-high is 12). After being lambasted for not hustling against the Red Sox and Yankees, he’s made a concerted effort to get out of the box in a hurry. He’s working on his outfield defense.
But it also doesn’t necessarily speak to a player who’s magically going to flip a switch and become the athlete everyone expected him to be. While it’s true that he’s simply too talented to flounder indefinitely, it’s equally true that this may last longer than anyone expects.
And that’s something everyone has to come to terms with. There’s concrete evidence that his current approach isn’t paying dividends. Letting that snowball and simply assuming everything will work out could have tangible mental and mechanical repercussions.
There’s no easy fix to this, no perfect alchemy. But step one is recognizing that this might not fix itself. It seems as if Soto recognizes that.
There’s “always the balance of, you can't address something unless you're aware of it [and] you can't improve it in that area unless you understand that that area needs improvement,” Stearns said, speaking of the team in general. “But if we continue to harp on it and talk about [it] and talk about it, it leads to pressure, which can lead to reactions that maybe are not the most constructive. So it’s a balance. I think our coaches and coaching staff and Mendy do a great job of walking that line, and I'm confident we're going to get sorted out a little more.”
For the Mets (and Soto’s) sake, that had better be true.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
