The New York Mets made the right move to sign Juan Soto to a historic $765 million contract, even if it took a while for him to get comfortable in his move from The Bronx to Queens. Soto generated a lot of criticism early on because of his struggles; the tide has begun to turn, though, as his bat heats up for the first-place Mets. Regardless of how he started, he’s still one of the most feared batters in baseball, which is why New York ultimately got the best of the deal.
According to an anonymous MLB player poll conducted by The Athletic, 10 MLB pitchers out of 64 respondents said that Soto was the hitter they'd least like to face in Game 7 of the World Series. Yes, over Shohei Ohtani and even Soto's former teammate Aaron Judge. Say what you want, but it was a great investment. And the Mets are already starting to cash in.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Juan Soto is still one of the most feared hitters in MLB, slow start or not
Soto has drastically improved from a rough start to the season. He batted .232 in April and dipped to .219 in May. With that slump came a lot of speculation about whether the Mets were right to invest almost $800 million into him. Since the calendar flipped to June, though, he’s proving why the Mets were wise to pay him all that money.
Soto is slashing .367/.588/.733 in 30 plate appearances so far this month (all numbers entering play on Wednesday). In just the last seven days, his batting average is .421. Soto is playing like the player the Mets wanted all along. It’s proof positive why patience is important: The Mets didn’t aggressively sign him to be the best hitter in every two-month sample size; they signed him because they thought he was a generational player at the plate, one with rare underlying skills that will shine with time.
The Mets got Soto because they’re ready to compete in October and compete for a World Series title. They want him to be the player that will make the play when they need it. The rest of MLB sees that, too. That’s why even through his early season struggles, they still don’t want to face him in pressure moments. He just played in a World Series last year with the New York Yankees and won one in 2019 with the Washington Nationals. He knows what it takes to perform in those big moments.
The Mets want Soto to have his moment in the orange and blue. They paid him for that reason. They are patient with him and know they will succeed through him. The rest of MLB sees that too, which is further proof they made the right decision.