On Wednesday night in Boston, Juan Soto’s bat made its home on his left shoulder.
He looked at one pitch from Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet, and then another, and then a third, and made his way back to the visiting dugout, having struck out looking.
In the second at-bat, it was more of the same.
All told, Soto didn’t swing at the first seven pitches he saw in that game before swinging at all three in his third at-bat, striking out for the third time that night.
Then came the seventh, and with the bases loaded, Soto uncorked on reliever Brennan Bernardino, skying the ball to deep, deep center. It had an expected batting average of .850, according to Baseball Savant, and it went for a sacrifice fly.
Such is the luck and circumstance plaguing the superstar outfielder, who entered the Mets’ blockbuster series against the Dodgers on Friday with a .243/.374/.429 slash line. Always known for his elite plate discipline, he has, of late, veered into plate timidity. And when he does swing, he doesn’t always get the results his quality of contact may otherwise dictate.
It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario — is he swinging less because he’s hitting less or the other way around? — but manager Carlos Mendoza did agree Friday that Soto could benefit from being more aggressive in the box.
“What makes him elite is not only his ability to use the whole field, hit for power, but also his ability to control the strike zone,” Mendoza said before the game. “Maybe they’re getting ahead now. I think I see it as a stretch where it happens. It’s baseball. So the league is probably recognizing that and making some adjustments and maybe [he has to say], ‘You know what? I need to be a little more aggressive here in this situation.’ I’m pretty sure he’ll do that because he’s too good of a hitter.”
The manager also hopes some lineup tweaks pay dividends.
For the last two games, Soto, who had spent the season batting second behind Francisco Lindor, has moved down to third. On Wednesday, Starling Marte was slotted in the two hole and on Friday, it was Mark Vientos, but he was a late scratch for what the Mets are calling precautionary reasons because of abdominal soreness, leaving Marte batting second.
Pete Alonso, who previously occupied the No. 3 spot, moved to cleanup. Brandon Nimmo also is an option for the two slot, Mendoza said, adding that for now, the Soto lineup shuffle is sticking around.
“Last year obviously, [Soto] had a really good year hitting in the two hole in front of Judgie [Aaron Judge], but when you look at his numbers in that three hole, I think they’re better,” Mendoza said (Soto is a career .266 batter hitting second and .287 hitting third). “For me, it’s just you want to have your best hitters at the top, but also maybe creating some traffic for him, and we saw that the other day in Boston where I feel like, bases loaded for him, then Pete had traffic, so I’m just trying to create a little bit of traffic for those two guys and see where it goes.”
Soto came into the day swinging at 34.2% of the pitches he’s seen this year, down from 37.2% last year. Of note, he’s also swinging at fewer pitches in the strike zone — 55.1% this season compared to 59.0% during his monster year with the Yankees in 2024. (To be fair, he’s chasing less this season, too.)
The Mets were 26th in baseball with a .215 batting average with runners in scoring position, and Soto is their worst offender, hitting a team-low .125 with seven walks and eight strikeouts.
“It’s part of the game,” he said earlier this week. “It’s not always going to be great. We’re going to have ups and downs. We’ve just got to keep our chin up and keep moving forward. It’s a game of failure. Sometimes you’re going to fail and you’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
If he manages that, it potentially means that one big hit could unleash the beast. That’s what Mendoza believes.
“For me, I feel like the frustration that he’s not coming through for the team with runners in scoring position” takes a toll, he said. “There’s been like three or four [hard-luck outs in those situations], and maybe sometimes that gets to him because he’s such a competitor and he wants to perform, and he feels like he’s not producing the way he’s capable. When you look at the underlying numbers [they’re good]. That’s why we say, keep hitting the ball hard.”
Notes & quotes: Paul Blackburn (knee) will have one more rehab start next Tuesday before the Mets make a decision on how to use him, Mendoza said. Frankie Montas (lat) will begin his rehab assignment Saturday and pitch two innings of about 30 to 35 pitches with Class A Brooklyn.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
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