Juan Soto is virtually the only player in the New York Mets lineup who's hitting, and other teams know it.
The New York Mets are having offensive problems, and they come with all kinds of sides and angles. One that’s just starting to get attention is the plight of Juan Soto, who’s hitting well enough but isn’t getting many chances to use his unique skill set.
This is perhaps one of the least surprising problems associated with the Mets offense, especially now that shortstop Francisco Lindor out for an extended stretch that will likely extend into June. There’s simply no reason to pitch to Soto given the rest of the way the lineup is performing, and opposition teams and pitchers know it.
The latest example of this occurred during the Mets’ doubleheader sweep against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. Francisco Alvarez and Bo Bichette hit back-to-back singles, which brought Soto to the plate as the potential go-ahead run in a 3-1 game.
What happened then was as predictable as many of the Mets’ losses have been. Colorado reliever Jaden Hill threw five pitches to Soto, and none were in the strike zone. Soto chased a 2-0 changeup with bad results, and after that he took his walk. Luis Robert Jr. popped up and Mark Vientos struck out, ending the rally before it had a real chance to get started.
This is part of a trend that’s not going away any time soon. Soto is seeing pitches in the strike zone just 44.7 percent of the time, which would be his lowest rate since 2020 if it continues. Last year the number was 49.7 percent, so this is a huge drop.
Soto is being more aggressive, which is the good news, bad news part of this problem. The Mets need him to be productive, but that aggression comes with the risk of slumps if Soto changes his approach.
“I’m going to keep trying my best to put everything that I can out there,” Soto said on Sunday in an article written by Jared Greenspan of MLB.com. “I can’t tell you they’re pitching around me. I had a couple pitches today to do damage and I couldn’t come through. But at the end of the day, we’re trying our best.
“Definitely, they don’t want to give up an extra-base hit, so definitely they’re being a little careful not only with me, but they have other guys they’ve got to be careful in this lineup. It’s part of the game.”
What’s especially disturbing about this is that there’s no real solution in sight. Soto relied on Lindor to generate traffic, and the Mets had enough offense for the hitters behind him to produce runs. Now there’s no one else hitting well aside from Francisco Alvarez, and that’s not nearly enough for the Mets to come out of their offensive funk and start to score runs again.