Francisco Lindor has answered Juan Soto’s challenge in the only way that matters

What a difference a few days can make. This time last week, the New York Mets appeared to be in a bit of disarray. They'd just lost a series to the lowly Minnesota Twins to drop to 11-7 on the season, the offense was scuffling and all new star outfielder Juan Soto seemed to want to talk about was how much he missed sharing a lineup with Aaron Judge. The media vultures had begun circling, and if the vibes didn't shift soon, a season that started with historic hype threatened to go off the rails in record time.

Soto's didn't just try to offer an explanation for his slow start at the plate, or offer some words of respect for a former teammate.

“It’s definitely different," Soto told the New York Post about his experience hitting for the Mets. "I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me [in Judge]. 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.”

Intentional or not, those words put a bullseye on his teammates' backs, and one teammate in particular: shortstop Francisco Lindor. All due respect to Pete Alonso, Lindor was supposed to be Soto's new running mate, the Robin to his Batman who helped lure him to the Mets in the first place with the promise of starring side by side for years to come. That Soto was already sounding dissatisifed with that arrangement after just a few weeks didn't bode well.

Lindor could've gotten frustrated at the media circus, or discouraged by his slow start to the season. Instead, he took Soto's words as a challenge, motivation to elevate his game to a whole new level.

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Francisco Lindor hot streak will make Juan Soto forget all about Aaron Judge

Through play on April 16, Lindor had a .651 OPS with just one homer and five extra-base hits in 78 plate appearances. Once New York got back home to Citi Field, though, everything changed: Lindor has been hitting the cover off the ball of late, slashing .467/.500/.867 with four homers in his last seven games — including a walk-off bomb against the St. Louis Cardinals last weekend.

All of a sudden, the Mets started winning — seven in a row now after polishing off a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday — and no one seemed to remember anything about what Soto had said just days prior. It was all too easy to imagine how New York's season might have gone south given all the drama swirling around Soto's sluggish start at the plate. But Lindor's ability to put the team on his back (and take some pressure off his $765 million teammate) has put everybody at ease and bought Soto plenty of time to find his stroke.