Since the start of the season, it didn’t appear the New York Mets had got what they paid for from Juan Soto. The 5-time Silver Slugger is hitting .246/.379/.443 with eight home runs in 2025. For just about any other player, these stats would acceptable; but after paying $765 million for the Juan Soto that helped the Yankees mash their way to a World Series, this year’s version of Juan Soto isn’t quite living up to his bank account. Soto’s .379 on-base percentage, while still great, would be the lowest OBP posted in his career, trailing only the .401 OBP he posted twice in his career.
Not surprisingly, the Mets and their fans have backed Soto during his rough stretch (keep in mind, it’s only rough for a player of his talent). But now, he’s drawing fire from his fanbase for an easily avoidable mistake.
In the last game of Soto’s first Subway Series in a Mets’ jersey, Soto went 0-for-4, unable to reach base once. But in his at-bat in a tied game, Soto hit a soft grounder up the middle on a half-hearted swing. Yankees’ second baseman, DJ LeMahieu, made a diving grab, stopping the ball from rolling into center field and throwing Soto out at first.
For the time it took the ball to hit Paul Goldschmidt’s glove at first, any player could have reached base. Soto, however, jogged slowly out of the box at a pace slower than a home run trot and was thrown out because of it.
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Mets fans respond to Soto’s lack of hustle
Having supported Soto from the beginning of his new Mets’ tenure, Mets fans were seemingly livid with his languid pace to first. Here are just a few reactions:
Over the first two games in his return to the Bronx, Soto had a few notable moments from drawing four walks, collecting one hit, stealing a couple bases and scoring a few runs. However, Mets fans were expecting something a little bigger from their new slugger as his much-anticipated revenge for the voracious booing and vulgar chants in addition to the other antics from jilted Yankee fans, like the shunning and the refusal to accept baseballs he tossed into the crowd.
Soto’s 0-for-4 series finale performance was undoubtedly disappointing. However, his unenergetic inertia on that last play was just plain disheartening.