Despite the New York Mets currently possessing an MLB-best 20-9 record, it has not been a banner start for superstar outfielder Juan Soto.
Fresh off inking a record-setting 15-year, $765 million deal in the offseason, Soto has struggled to find his footing during his first month in Queens. He has homered just three times in 29 games after slugging a career-high 43 longballs last year with the New York Yankees, and his .787 OPS would easily be the worst mark of his career. Soto has also come up short in big moments, going just 3-for-15 in what Baseball Reference qualifies as “high leverage” plate appearances.
The fast starts of fellow stars Pete Alonso (1.088 OPS) and Francisco Lindor (.304 AVG, five home runs) have helped pick up some of the slack from Soto’s struggles, but it’s safe to say that the first month of Soto’s Mets tenure has not gone as planned, which is why Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer declared that he was one of baseball’s biggest losers from the first month of action.
“He hasn't been the hitter the Mets paid for. A .787 OPS and three homers aren't bad numbers, per se, but this is a guy with a .948 career OPS and a self-imposed “best hitter ever” reputation,” wrote Rymer. “Whatever $765 million buys, it doesn't purchase an excess of patience.”
The good news for both Soto and panicking Mets fans is that the advanced metrics paint a much rosier picture. His walk and strikeout rates remain elite, and he ranks inside the top ten percentile in both average exit velocity and squared-up percentage. Nobody is going to deny the value of a good first impression, but Soto still has 14 years and five months to prove he was worth the massive investment, and all signs point to an impending turnaround.
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