Juan Soto didn’t bury himself in April, regardless of a tepid begin for him. He did sufficient that two homers on the primary day of Could in opposition to Arizona pushed him — for instance — into the highest 20 within the Nationwide League in OPS-plus.
Soto throughout his first month as a Met was nonetheless being even handed on the plate and customarily hitting the ball arduous, and thus there was not a four-alarm name to start to check and distinction him with George Foster’s time as a Met.
In spite of everything, he’s Juan Soto. Solely 26. A hitting savant simply coming into his prime after laying down among the many best offensive outcomes ever by 25, together with final yr in New York. As just lately as 2023 with San Diego, Soto hit .202 by April (29 video games) with the identical points that yr (58.8 p.c groundball fee, .133 common with runners in scoring place) as he had this season by April (55.4 p.c groundball fee, .174 common with runners in scoring place).
From Could 1 on in 2023, Soto was Soto — his groundball fee dropped precipitously (to 49.6 p.c the remainder of the yr), his batting common soared with runners in scoring place (to .299), and he hit 30 homers over the ultimate 5 months with a .966 OPS. So sure, an eyebrow may go up resulting from a gradual begin, notably when a participant indicators the most important deal ever (15 years, $765 million). However nothing has actually occurred but to boost greater than a suspicious eyebrow.
