Juan Soto, the show, finally appears for the Mets
The Mets player, valued at $ 765 million, has gone from having problems reuse the Soto ‘Shuttle’. Has the superstar return?
Los Angeles – The Juan Soto That the New York Mets were waiting for him when he was offered the most lucrative contract in the history of sport, he was finally shown at its maximum on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, monopolizing all the attention without even putting the ball at stake.
On two occasions, in his second and third appearance to bat, Soto engaged in dramatic battles of seven releases with the right of the Dodgers Tony Gonsolin. And he won twice with exciting balls by balls, monopolizing attention both between throws and during the action.
He smiled while waiting for Gonsolin’s shipments, after receiving releases and after hitting a Foul line along the right garden line. He nodded and shook her. He backed away and with a firm step. He turned with his hips and made the Soto Shuffle. In the end, after checking a swing to get its second base by balls and risk Gonsolin throwing to the first base, he and Gonsolin were discussing heatedly.
I was relaxed. I was confident. It was finally Juan Soto, the showman.
“It’s Juan Soto as Juan Soto,” said the Mets manager, Carlos Mendoza.
Juan Soto was absent during his first two months with the Mets, since he failed to perform at the level of him. Several underlying metrics -average expected batting, percentage of expected slugging, percentage of strong blows, persecution index, among others -suggested that he was a victim of bad luck, but the results are the results. And the results – a batting average of .224 and an OPS of .745 until May 28 – were disappointing for a superstar in its 26 -year season.
“Soto has been Soto for us,” said the Mets’ batting coenter -up, Jeremy Barnes. “He simply has not had the necessary luck with the battered balls. And he is aware of it.”
Beyond the results, Soto’s behavior during the first two months of the season was remarkably, different from the usual. He has been criticized on more than one occasion for his lack of intensity, and has rarely shown his characteristic style in the batting box. His interactions with his companions have been analyzed and dissected. His body language has been the subject of a thorough scrutiny. He has heard boos. The noise has been constant.
Before Wednesday’s game, which the Mets won 6-1, Soto, who plays in his fourth team in four seasons, admitted that adapting to his new organization and the weight of a $ 765 million contract has been a challenge.
“I still need a little more time, but little by little it is improving,” Soto told AM850 in Spanish, when asked if he felt 100 % in the midst of all changes and additional pressure. “I feel more comfortable.”
Between reasons, Soto said he has supported Mendoza while adapting to his new environment. The two “we talk a lot,” said Soto, with a level of transparency that he described as important.
Mendoza said their conversations almost never deal with what happens in the field. The issues range from the family to their countries of origin (Soto is from the Dominican Republic and Mendoza is from Venezuela) and its previous experiences in sport.
They speak periodically, once a week or every two weeks, when Mendoza feels that it is the right time. It is an approach that Mendoza says that he adopts his players with everyone, especially the new ones in the organization. The effort has penetrated in Soto.
“We have good conversations that, at the end of the day, help me feel better acclimatized to the team,” Soto said.
Last Friday, before New York began a series of three games against the historically lousy Colorado Rockies, the president of the Mets baseball operations, David Stearns, emphasized that Soto’s work behind the scene was not a problem. He said he saw no problem that Soto would need to solve. But he acknowledged that Soto is “trying to do too much right now.”
“It certainly wants results at a higher level than we have seen so far,” said Stearns. “I am quite sure that we will get them. But I also understand that it is natural when a player signs an important contract, and this was a very big one:” If the results are not immediate, there will be questions and there will be reactions. I understand perfectly. And I think John too. “
Soto left 4-2 with a double and a basis stolen in the victory of that night, which began a week of encouraging results. The sample is lowercase, but Soto has registered six hits, eight bases per ball and only two strikeouts, which adds a.
Before Wednesday, when he left 1-0 with three bases per ball and a driven race, he had connected three home runs in four games and registered extrabasses in five consecutive meetings thanks to greater aggressiveness about throws in the Strike area (in May he only hit 53 % of the releases in the area), while hitting the ball with force.
Soto has registered similar gusts this season, showing flashes of talent that led the teams to bid astronomical amounts for their services. But it is expected to maintain an elite performance.
He did not get any hit and received two bases for balls in the last game of the Thursday series in Los Angeles, which the Mets lost 6-5, and continues to beat alone .229 with an OPS of .797, 11 home runs and 50 bases for balls, league leader, in 62 games this season. The figures pale compared to the average batting of .285 and the PAHO of .953 that registered in its first seven seasons.
“It’s a bit difficult because it is frustrating not to see the results of what you are doing,” Soto said. “It’s uncomfortable. You try to help the team as much as you can. But I have a good routine. I trust her and I know that I have followed her during all these years, all these days, so I have a lot of confidence in her to get the results I want.”
The starter of the Mets Clay Holmes witnessed how Soto achieved the results he wanted last season as a teammate with the New York Yankees. Soto hit 41 homers, record in his career, with an OPS of .989 in his year of consecration, being third in the vote to the MVP of the American League and collaborating with Aaron Judge to create the most dangerous duo of the major leagues, while the Yankees advanced towards the World Series.
“I’m still feeling that I’m seeing the same type,” said Holmes. “I don’t feel that there is anything strange. For me it is the same type.”
On Wednesday, Scott Boras, the man who negotiated Soto’s record contract, described the return of Soto to Yankee Stadium in mid-May as … when he received relentless boards and vulgar songs during a series of three games .– An “obstacle” in his acclimatization process. “It was the first time I saw many of their former companions and together they had achieved a lot.”
“It’s psychological,” Boras said about the transition. “It is different. They treat you differently for your contractual situation. Everyone knows it and, in a way, you want it to be as it was, not as it is. And” you have to learn the part of the “is”, and it is a new part of the process. “
A few hours later, Boras saw Juan Soto resurface from always from his seat in the front row behind the Home Plate of the Dodger Stadium. The Mets expect it to be just the beginning.
“Little by little, said Soto.
