The Global New York Mets Blog: The Ballad of Juan Soto

Thursday, June 5, 2025

The Ballad of Juan Soto

This isn’t the first rodeo.

In his first season in Flushing, Juan Soto’s start to his 2025 season hasn’t been idyllic. To say the 26 year old superstar outfielder has been struggling would be underselling it. Soto is hitting a meager .224 this season through the month of May with an OPS almost 200 points lower than his career average at .745 at the time of writing.

Fan reaction to Soto’s struggles has been mixed to say the least. Depending where on social media you look, you’ll see reactions begging fans to be patient to posts begging the Mets to either bench Soto, or demote him to the minor leagues. After signing a 15 year, $765M deal back in December, the richest contract in both MLB history and all of sports, it’s not unreasonable to say Soto has been a disappointment. But this is far from the first time a big time player has struggled in their transition to Queens. Nor will it likely be the last.

Prior to Soto’s mega-deal, Carlos Beltrán held the team record for the largest free agent contract. In January 2005, Beltrán inked a seven year $119M deal to play for the Mets, igniting both an era of excitement and one that would ultimately be a disappointment. That first season, the star center fielder was a lightning rod for fan criticism based on his play. While not playing horribly, he did not play up to his potential. For the 2005 season, Beltrán hit .266 with a .744 OPS that season while slugging just 16 home runs after hitting 38 the previous season splitting time between Kansas City and Houston.

The rest of Beltrán’s tenure with the Mets would go a lot better. He won three consecutive gold gloves in center field in 2006-2008, two silver sluggers in 2006 & 2007, and had four more All-Star nods in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011 before being traded to San Francisco at the 2011 trade deadline. Beltrán ranks seventh all time in Mets franchise history in home runs and RBIs, with 149 and 559 respectively.

For a more recent example of the first year struggles in the Orange and Blue, look no further than current Mets star shortstop Francisco Lindor. The former All-Star shortstop was acquired in a trade with the then Cleveland Indians back in January of 2021. Lindor and pitcher Carlos Carassco came to New York in exchange for shortstop Amed Rosario, second baseman Andrés Giménez, and two minor leaguers.

Lindor, set to become a free agent after the 2021 season, signed a 10 year $341M extension with the Mets right before the season started. But that extension soon seemed like a burden to start the year off with his new team. Up until Memorial Day weekend that year, he was hitting a putrid .181 batting average, an OPS of just .551, with just three home runs and nine RBIs. Fan reaction to his early struggles was harsh.

But, Lindor soon reverted back into the form that earned him that big contract. The slugging shortstop would launch 17 more home runs that season, driving in 54 RBIs while hitting .257 with an OPS of .835. Lindor has since had three top 10 MVP finishes including finishing in second place last season

while sparking a dramatic Mets playoff run, losing to the eventual World Series champion Dodgers in six games in the National League Championship Series. From being booed and ridiculed by fans, to potentially being named the next Mets captain. It has been an incredible turnaround for Lindor in Queens.

This adjustment issue goes as far back as the late 90s. After being traded to the Mets midseason in 1998, catcher Mike Piazza had his share of struggles adjusting to life in New York and to a new team, his second in just a week. Piazza overall had a very good season with the Mets, but often struggled to get the big hit to drive in runners on base, especially runners in scoring position.

After signing a seven year, $91M deal in the offseason of 1998-’99, Piazza would go on to cement himself not only as a Mets legend, but as a Hall of Famer too. In 2016, Piazza became just the second person ever inducted into Cooperstown as a New York Met alongside Tom Seaver. Piazza slugged 220 home runs for New York. At the time of Piazza’s retirement in 2008, that was the second most in franchise history behind only Darryl Strawberry’s 252 mark.

With Soto’s track record of success, there is little reason to believe this is the new normal. It may not be today, it might not even be this season, but Juan Soto will turn it around.