The 26-year-old has been good rather than great in his first season with his new team, and he’s playing in an unforgiving environment
If you only tuned into the biggest headlines about him, you might be convinced that Juan Soto’s first quarter of a season with the New York Mets has been a complete flop.
Last December, the Mets guaranteed Soto $765m on a 15-year contract, the most lucrative deal in professional sports history. In the early going of his time with the Mets, Soto has been the subject of a handful of viral stories, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre. None of them have been positive. Last Sunday, Soto did not hustle out of the box on a ground ball up the middle, and his casual trot to first base cost him a chance at an infield hit, in the eighth inning of a tied game against the crosstown rival Yankees. The very next night, Soto jogged out of the box on a fly ball at Fenway Park that he thought was a home run. It was not, and another news cycle about Soto’s effort followed. “I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” he told reporters.
