Where Does Mets' Star RF Juan Soto Rank In MLB's Top 100 Players Right Now?

After being atop the Major League Baseball standings in early June, the New York Mets experienced an epic collapse that took them out of playoff contention by year’s end.

The harsh reality of a collapse that severe was that a lot of players that were on the team in 2025 wouldn’t be back for the 2026 season. Star players like first baseman Pete Alonso and closer Edwin Diaz signed large contracts with new teams, and other core players were traded away.

President of Baseball Operations David Stearns set an offseason goal: “run prevention,” also known as improving the pitching staff and defense.

It took until this week to make their biggest moves, but the Mets have essentially retooled their roster with better defensive players as well as big-name pitchers to ensure another 2025 collapse won’t happen this year.

Despite losing a lot of production from Alonso, the Mets still have a lot of firepower, especially from right fielder Juan Soto.

Soto had a fantastic first season with the Mets last year despite how it ended. He hit a career-high 43 home runs and drove in 105 runs with a .921 OPS over 160 games, and those aren’t even his most impressive stats.

The four-time All-Star secured his sixth Silver Slugger award and finished third in National League Most Valuable Player voting. Soto ranked sixth on MLB Network’s Top 100 Players Right Now list.

“We saw a version of Soto last year that we had never seen before, and we’re not just talking about his new uniform. In his first season with the Mets, Soto achieved some familiar feats; he led the Majors in walks for the fourth time and had an NL-best .396 on-base percentage,” MLB.com’s Brian Murphy wrote Thursday.

“He cleared 40 home runs for a second straight year, finishing with a career-high 43. He won his sixth Silver Slugger after his age-26 season. But 38 stolen bases?! No one saw that coming from a player who had never nabbed more than 12 bags in any of his previous seven seasons. Soto became the first Met and just the ninth player to record at least 40 dingers and 35 steals in a single year.”

Soto has the new base-stealing rules to thank for his NL-leading 38 stolen bases. He doesn’t have burning speed, but having great jumps will help, which is a credit to first base coach Antoan Richardson. Unfortunately for Soto, we may not see him reach this mark again with Richardson’s departure to the Atlanta Braves’ coaching staff.

The Mets won’t be moaning and groaning if Soto doesn’t sniff that number of stolen bases again because he’s a top player in the league without stealing. He has been since he debuted as a 19-year-old.

Many thought his massive contract was ridiculous (and it is), but he’s worth every penny even without being a great defender. He does everything the Mets need him to do and does it better than most players in the league.