Juan Soto's loud bat switches up soundtrack around him for one night
New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza pauses in the dugout prior to a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
There’s no way of quieting the noise for Juan Soto or the Mets. The soundtrack of failure is always playing in the background, sometimes at a louder volume than other times. That’s just life when you’re a slumping $765 million superstar, employed by a passionately scrutinized franchise that plays 162 single-game seasons a year.
What Soto can do, however, is replace the negative drumbeat with something the people would rather hear, and on Saturday night, he did just that on two occasions in the fourth inning. The first was the sound of his bat crushing a hanging splitter from Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin. The second was that same 108-mph line drive smacking the centerfield wall — roughly two feet from the top — for a two-out, two-run double that gave the Mets the lead for good in their 5-2 win over the Dodgers.
Before that swing, Soto was batting .119 (5-for-42) with runners in scoring position, the fifth-worst average in the majors, and did not have an extra-base hit in his previous 11 games dating to his May 9 homer against the Cubs.
All Soto had heard about since then was the speculation about him missing the Yankees, his buyer’s remorse with the Mets and a perceived lack of hustle that would be a moot point if his numbers were more appropriate for his salary.
On Saturday night, he drowned out that noise, and the 41,332 fans did the same for him at Citi Field. He was treated to frequent applause, including a standing ovation when he returned to the dugout after the double.
“When I hit it, I was just like, ‘Don’t catch it,’ ” Soto said. “I wasn’t thinking it was going that far. When it hit the wall, it actually shocked me. I was just hoping that the ball lands.”
As badly as Soto needed that ball to dent the wall in that scenario, so did the Mets, who entered Saturday’s middle game of the NLCS rematch playing three games under .500 (9-12) since April 30, the result of their vanishing offense.
The destabilizing month was highlighted by Soto’s bottomless adjustment period to Flushing, but there also was Pete Alonso’s relapse from MVP to ordinary, along with the recent lineup juggling by manager Carlos Mendoza.
Oddly enough, during that 21-game flirt with mediocrity, the canary in the coal mine, statistically speaking, was Tyrone Taylor. Why the glove-first centerfielder, you ask? Before Soto’s big smash Saturday, Taylor was the Mets’ offensive star during that downturn. His .873 OPS led the team, well ahead of runner-up Soto (.808) among players with a minimum of 50 plate appearances in that stretch. Taylor also was tops in batting average (.328), with Mark Vientos the next best at .265.
These are small sample sizes, of course. But it was somewhat astonishing that Taylor, a .242 career hitter with a lifetime .727 OPS, could be outpacing the entire Mets lineup for nearly a month, especially a group that includes a pair of healthy perennial MVP candidates in Soto and Francisco Lindor.
It was an indictment of a Mets offense that sputtered early, rebounded steadily, then promptly nosedived again, dragging the team below the Phillies in the NL East (three games back before Saturday night’s game). During that subpar month, the Mets had sunk to the middle of the MLB pack (or lower) in nearly every offensive category — 14th in OPS (.723), 18th in homers (22) and 19th in batting average (.240).
Life got more complicated for Saturday’s game, as injuries to Brandon Nimmo (neck) and Vientos (abdominal discomfort) required even more lineup tinkering, with Mendoza going with Starling Marte in leftfield and the newly recalled Jared Young at DH. At this point it’s hard to tell what exactly will shake the Mets out of their plate funk, but this configuration wouldn’t be among the top choices.
“You’re definitely anxious for things to turn around,” Nimmo said Saturday afternoon. “But there’s going to be times when you’re just not doing as well, and unfortunately right now, I think we ran into a little bit of that. There’s quite a few of our guys that are going through it at the same time.”
Soto has become the $765 million magnet of this offensive malaise, and deservedly so. Not only had his OPS-plus crept closer to average (126), but he’s also grounded into 10 double plays, behind only the Rays’ Junior Caminero (14).
Then there was Alonso, who entered Saturday batting .153 (9-for-59) with a .403 OPS during a 15-game homerless streak.
But just as Alonso carried the Mets early on, and Lindor’s heroics took a turn, there is a void now that is calling for Soto to step up. As we witnessed Saturday night, it’s in there, and nobody else — with the exception of maybe Brett Baty, who had two more RBIs in the win — seems prepared to put this slumping lineup on his back. It’s the perfect time to reward his manager’s faith.
“He’s too good of a player,” Mendoza said. “I know the player, I know the way he goes about his business, I know how he handles adversity. And there’s a big-time track record there. So for us to worry about him? Not really. He’s too good, and we know that sooner rather than later, the results are going to be there.”
Soto showed up Saturday night, and for a few hours at Citi Field, his swings generated the soundtrack every Mets fan has been anxious to hear on a much more frequent basis.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
