15 hours ago
1
Juan Soto did not bury himself in April, despite a tepid start for him. He did enough that two homers on the first day of May against Arizona pushed him — for example — into the top 20 in the National League in OPS-plus.
Soto during his first month as a Met was still being judicious at the plate and generally hitting the ball hard, and thus there was not a four-alarm call to begin to compare and contrast him with George Foster’s time as a Met.
After all, he is Juan Soto. Only 26. A hitting savant just entering his prime after laying down among the greatest offensive results ever through 25, including last year in New York. As recently as 2023 with San Diego, Soto hit .202 through April (29 games) with the same issues that year (58.8 percent groundball rate, .133 average with runners in scoring position) as he had this season through April (55.4 percent groundball rate, .174 average with runners in scoring position).
From May 1 on in 2023, Soto was Soto — his groundball rate dropped precipitously (to 49.6 percent the rest of the year), his batting average soared with runners in scoring position (to .299), and he hit 30 homers over the final five months with a .966 OPS. So yes, an eyebrow might go up due to a slow start, notably when a player signs the largest deal ever (15 years, $765 million). But nothing has truly happened yet to raise more than a suspicious eyebrow.
English (US)