On December 8th, 2024, in the late hours of the night, reports began circulating that the Juan Soto sweepstakes had signed a colossal 765 million dollar deal with the New York Mets. Not only did this set records, but it completely flipped the script, as the Mets had stolen away a beloved New York Yankee. Many fans began to speculate that this marked the end of the old time Yankee era of trading for and extending all the best talent. All winter the discourse around baseball was focused on Juan. Singing as a 16 year old with the Washington Nationals out of the Dominican Republic, Soto became known during the 2019 fall classic for his heroics, setting multiple records and taking multiple future hall of famers deep throughout the playoffs while barely still being a teenager. After getting traded to San Diego, he played a year and a half there before being sent to the Yankees a year before he hit free agency. After a dominant 2024 campaign in which he smacked a career high 41 homers, he emphasized the fact that he would be available to all 30 teams this offseason, and after a long sweepstakes, he picked the Mets as his home for the rest of his career.
All winter Mets fans raved about their shiny new slugger, and the sky was the limit. Many speculated Soto would be the greatest Met hitter ever by the time he was done with his career. Soto would undoubtedly go into cooperstown with a Mets cap on. Fast forward a few months, and Met fans are fed up with Soto. His Met career started off in disappointing fashion on opening day after he swung and missed at a Josh Hader slider in the top of the ninth with the tying run in scoring position, which he made up for by slugging a moonshot to right the next day. Many saw this and expected the typical Soto was ready for the season in which the Mets were expected to compete for a pennant. Since the start of the year, Soto has not met expectations in the slightest. While his below average is still well above the average player, Soto’s numbers have not nearly justified the massive paycheck he received. As of May 20th, 2025, Soto is batting .246 with 8 homers and only 20 RBI’s in 171 at bats. In his last seven games he’s only had 3 hits in 16 at bats including a letdown of a performance returning to Yankee stadium. Soto went 1-10 in a ballpark atmosphere that would make you think he was a homegrown Yankee who left after years of success opposed to the one year he spent.
Any baseball fan knows that Soto will figure it out-he is a generational hitter who has been a top 5 player in the league since he was just 19 years old. However, there may be a greater aspect to why Soto is struggling. Throughout the season, fans of not just the Mets but all teams have noticed Soto’s lack of energy and compared it to his start last year with the Yankees. His emotion when it comes to big moments last year and his elation in the Bronx has been gone for a long time. He even abandoned his signature Soto Shuffle when taking a ball. While it is likely a factor of Soto knowing he can be playing better, many believe Soto regrets his decision to sign with Queens over their crosstown rival. On Sunday, he told ESPN he would get mic’d up for the 3rd inning in right field, but decided not to last minute to not and pinned the responsibility to Brandon Nimmo. After the game he told reporters he would be back to answer questions but never returned. Michael Kay suggested on the Yankee broadcast that inside sources suggested Soto wanted to be a Yankee but his family wanted him on the Mets. While unconfirmed, it does make sense as Soto has tended to prioritize his family in years past. This paired with Soto’s lack of hustle has caused Met fans to begin to get impatient just two months into a 15 year contract. Last night, in a game against Boston, Soto hit a high fly ball to right and admired it as if it was a homer, only for the hit to bang on the top of the green Monster and become a long single. When asked about his hustle, Soto claimed he had been hustling, but manager Carlos Mendoza said he would speak to Juan about it.
The idea of Soto being unhappy seemed ridiculous, however with the way this past week has gone, Soto has proved something is wrong. Whether he is mad at himself for not playing up to par or truly does not desire to play for Queens, Soto’s year has given Mets fans deja vu to Lindor’s first year of his ten year long extension in which him and teammates Javier Baez and Kevin Pillar went as far as to give the fans a thumbs down as their way of retaliating or “booing back to the fans”. While Baez and Pillar are no longer Mets, Lindor has matured as a Met and just three years later fans are calling for Lindor to become a captain. However, Soto and Lindor are different. Whether Soto likes it or not, he is going to be a Met for a long time. The Mets are still 29-19 even with Soto in a slump, but their offense has been slow and they are trending down with a 9-9 record in the month of May. If the Mets want to keep themselves in the race they need to change something, whether another player only meeting like last year or a big win over the Dodgers this weekend, winning teams are called winning teams because they find ways to win during their slumps.
