Perhaps it isn’t the fact that Juan Soto is performing worse than ever before in his star-studded career, but the $765 million price tag for what they’ve received is reflecting poorly on the New York Mets. Since making his debut in Queens, Soto is hitting .224/.352/.393 with eight home runs. Across his stat line, Soto is posting nothing but career lows.
But before we add to the Soto storm clouds that refuse to lift from above the once-revered slugger’s head, we need to note that his .352 on-base percentage is still highly respectable. The key reason behind such a fierce free agency chase was that Soto’s OBP never dipped below .401. So, while Soto might be succeeding in at least one aspect when compared to most other players, he is lagging the key benchmark that landed him $765 million. If this has demonstrated just one thing, it may be that if neither Aaron Judge nor Shohei Ohtani are worth such an amount, perhaps no sports star is.
But lost in Soto’s declining stat line is an overlooked discrepancy which has seen his numbers hit a downward spiral. And while his stats were already on the downtrend, this catalyst saw his numbers immediately plummet.
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Soto is falling one spot too far in the lineup
A week ago, Mets’ manager Carlos Mendoza decided to bump Soto back one spot in the lineup. This came after Soto was criticized for lacking effort on more than one play. Expecting the move would help pull Soto out of the hole he is in, this minor adjustment has instead had a catastrophic repercussion. Below is difference between Soto batting second in the lineup and Soto batting third:
Spot in lineup | AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | K | BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Second | 174 | .247 | .379 | .437 | 8 | 34 | 38 |
Third | 27 | .072 | .182 | .111 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
Off the bat, there are quite a few noticeable differences. For one, there isn’t much flying off Soto’s bat. Puns aside, Soto is 2-for-27 in seven games since moving down the order. His career-long trend of accruing more walks than strikeouts has suddenly reversed. For once, Soto’s underperformance is actually underperforming average players; and by a lot.
It’s no secret that Soto hasn’t quite lived up to his monstrous expectations. With 14 and two-thirds years left on his contract, Soto still has plenty of baseball left to play in a Mets’ jersey; and one can only expect that the best is yet to come. Having gone through a failed experiment, it might be best if he were to spend the rest of his Mets’ tenure batting second in the lineup as opposed to third.