For Juan Soto, life with out Aaron Choose has felt completely different.
Soto, who batted in entrance of the reigning American League MVP with the Yankees final 12 months, acknowledged as a lot when he described how pitchers have approached his at-bats early on in his Mets tenure.
“It’s definitely different. I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me,” Soto advised the New York Submit this week, referring to Choose. “I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that. I was pitched differently last year.”
Soto hit .288 with a career-high 41 house runs and 109 RBI final 12 months with the Yankees, with whom he batted second within the lineup, earlier than signing a record-setting 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets within the winter.
The lefty-swinging Soto nonetheless hits No. 2 for the Mets, who’re utilizing right-handed slugger Pete Alonso, a four-time All-Star, as his lineup safety.
Soto entered Tuesday with a wonderful .400 on-base share — down from .419 final 12 months — however his two house runs and 6 RBI by 16 video games have been beneath his lofty requirements.
Alonso, in the meantime, has benefited from Soto’s elite talents to work counts and get on base. Alonso entered Tuesday with a .345 common, 4 homers, 19 RBI and a 1.137 OPS that ranked third within the majors, trailing solely Choose (1.212) and the Tampa Bay Rays’ Jonathan Aranda (1.158).
“I’m not really gonna go back and forth with this,” Choose stated Tuesday of Soto’s feedback. “He’s got probably one of the best hitters in the game behind him right now with what Alonso’s doing. It’s been fun to watch. He’s hitting close to .400, driving the ball all over the field, driving guys in, so they’re gonna be just fine.”
However what do the numbers say?
Coming into Tuesday, pitchers this season had thrown a four-seam fastball to Soto 22.7% of the time, marking a profession low however down solely barely from 23.8% final 12 months.
Soto had seen some variation of a fastball — together with four-seamers, two-seamers, cutters and sinkers — 49.3% of the time, down from the 50.9% he noticed in 2024.
The proportion of breaking balls Soto had seen (31.3%) was the very best of his profession, and up from 30.4% final 12 months.
After all, not all fastballs and breaking balls are created equally.
Soto was seeing a career-low 43.2% of pitches within the strike zone to start play Tuesday, down a couple of extra ticks from the 46.5% he noticed final season.
The 26-year-old Soto is swinging at solely 53.3% of pitches within the zone this 12 months, in comparison with 59.0% final 12 months.
Juan Soto spent final season with the Yankees with Aaron Choose (#99) hitting behind him.
However solely 16% of the pitches Soto had seen with a runner on base have been within the coronary heart of the zone, based on The Athletic. That was the bottom charge amongst hitters who had seen a minimum of 100 pitches with a runner aboard.
“I would say I am getting a decent amount of strikes, but there’s some specific situations where pitchers don’t attack,” Soto stated through the interview.
Soto added, “I feel like I am trying to be the same: do damage when I can and whenever they want to attack me I take my chances and when they don’t I just take my walk.”
By means of 16 video games, Soto had drawn 14 walks, which was tied for the third most within the majors.
He walked 129 instances final 12 months — behind solely Choose’s 133 — and led MLB hitters within the class in every of the earlier three seasons, which he spent with the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres.
Soto has been deliberately walked twice in entrance of Alonso, in comparison with solely as soon as in entrance of Choose final common season. Choose responded in that occasion by hitting the three hundredth house run of his profession, whereas Alonso is 1-for-2 with a three-run double in his at-bats following an intentional stroll to Soto.
After all, it stays a really small pattern dimension. The 2025 season isn’t even three weeks outdated, and 16 video games isn’t even 10% of a full MLB marketing campaign.
Choose hit .178 with 4 house runs in his first 27 video games final 12 months, then completed as MLB’s chief in practically each main offensive class, together with house runs (58), RBI (144) and OPS (1.159).
“He can look at what I did last April for kind of an example,” Choose stated of Soto. “But he needs to keep being himself and he’s going to be just fine.”
Initially Revealed: April 15, 2025 at 6:07 PM EDT
