New York Mets star LF Juan Soto had an incredible 2025 season that saw him swipe 38 bags. Can he join the elusive 40/40 club in 2026?
The New York Mets knew what kind of player it was getting when it signed star outfielder Juan Soto to a massive 15-year, $765 million contract last offseason.
The return on investment was certainly there and then some despite the Mets missing the playoffs in an epic mid-to-late season collapse. Soto was excellent during his first season as a Met, posting a 6.2 WAR season with 43 home runs, 105 RBI, 127 walks (led Major League Baseball) and 38 stolen bases (tied-most in National League).
Soto had a slash line of .263/.396/.525, good for a .921 OPS – which is astonishingly 27 points less than his career OPS of .948. This all culminated in a third-place finish in NL Most Valuable Player voting, his third top three finish and sixth top 10 finish.
His 43 homers and 38 stolen bases were career-highs; we know Soto has the power, but he isn’t the fastest runner. That’s a testament to the work he put in with then-first base coach Antoan Richardson but also the change in rules making it easier to swipe bags.
While Richardson is gone, Soto will take what he learned from him and use that to his advantage as he embarks on his first MVP award. Could Soto swipe two more bags and join the elusive 40/40 club? ESPN’s David Schoenfield weighed the possibility in his “real or not real” article from Monday.
“Soto also hit a career-high 43 home runs, so he just missed becoming the seventh player with a 40/40 season,” Schoenfield wrote. “He especially ran wild on the basepaths over the final two months of the season, his 23 steals proof that swiping bases is as much about aptitude and determination as pure footspeed.”
Schoenfield went on to mention that Soto is determined to find a way to beat Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani in the MVP race, and Soto is quoted as saying Ohtani better keep playing at the high level that he has been because he’s coming for him.
Soto had a rough start to last season’s campaign and was hitting in the .220s at the end of May, but slashed .285/.418/.596 over his final 105 games according to Schoenfield. Couple that with a 40/40 season, Schoenfield thinks the MVP race will be one for the ages, and he believes the 27-year-old has real potential to get into the 40/40 club.
“It might be easy to say teams will be more aware of Soto's baserunning in 2026, but they were aware of what he was doing in August and September and still couldn't stop him. I think he'll have another big year on the bases.”
Soto doesn’t have the lightning speed that a lot of base-stealers have, but his technique is fluid and he knows when and when not to steal. I believe a 40/40 season is doable, especially if he gets off to a hot start to the campaign rather than a cold one like last year.