The New York Mets are battling for their playoff-lives in the final six games of the Major League Baseball season. The Mets travel to Wrigley Field for a three-game showdown with the Chicago Cubs starting Tuesday.
At 80-76, the Mets are tied with the Cincinnati Reds for the final National League Wild Card spot and sit just one game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
New York’s season has been a rollercoaster. The team was the best in baseball through 70 games and had the best starting rotation ERA by a mile. Then, somehow, everything changed.
The rotation fell apart; their best pitcher earlier in the season, Kodai Senga, was sent down to Triple-A Syracuse a few weeks ago.
The offense hit a wall, but thanks to first baseman Pete Alonso and outfielder Juan Soto, the Mets have been swinging it much better.
Speaking of Soto, in light of what appears to be a huge collapse by New York, he was named “Base Thief of the Year” by ESPN’s Jeff Passan in his third annual “Passan Awards.”
“Of all the unbelievable things to happen in the 2025 season -- the no-way-that-can-be-true, how-did-that-happen, you-got-to-be-kidding-me facts -- this is unquestionably the wildest: Juan Soto leads MLB in stolen bases in the second half,” wrote Passan Tuesday. “Seriously, Juan Soto. The $765 million man. In 58 games since the All-Star break, Soto has 24 stolen bases -- four more than runner-up Jazz Chisholm Jr. This season, Soto has swiped 35, nearly triple his previous career high of a dozen set in 2019 and 2023. And it's not as if Soto is leaving all kinds of outs on the basepaths; he has been caught just four times this season (though three of those are in September).”
Soto is doing it all offensively. Not only does he have 35 stolen bases and 24 in the second half, but he has 42 home runs and 104 RBI in 154 games.
New rules have made it easier to steal bases and gives Soto a chance at a 40 home runs/40 stolen bases season.
“The new rules have led to remarkable seasons: Ronald Acuna Jr.'s 40/70 year in 2023 and Ohtani's 50/50 campaign last year,” Passan wrote. “As unprecedented as each was, they'd have been likelier bets than Soto threatening to become just the seventh player to go 40/40. That he's at 30/30 already -- alongside Chisholm, Jose Ramirez and Corbin Carroll -- is remarkable enough.”
Soto has had a highly impressive season, but he’s not done yet. With six games to go, nobody knows what kind of numbers Soto will finish with.