Laura Albanese: Mets' Juan Soto is his team's lone All-Star, and that just speaks to the failure of 2026

ATLANTA — There’s Juan Soto, and then there’s everyone else.

It actually shouldn’t be that way; when Soto signed his 15-year, $765 million contract before the 2025 season, it was with the understanding that he would be the founding pillar of a perennial contender. Instead, he more closely resembles a fortified castle surviving a siege. The land around him is razed but he remains untouched, creating a career legacy likely to one day make him baseball’s equivalent of a UNESCO world heritage site.

If you want proof, you can look at the Mets’ 14-3 loss to Atlanta on Saturday night. And no, you don’t really need to know much about this utter no-show of a game in which Atlanta hit five home runs. The only novelty involved catcher Luis Torrens pitching the eighth while smoke clouds — the result of the incessant fireworks shot off during the game — made Truist Park look like the Mets’ own personal hell.

Oh, and they fell to a new low of 17 games under .500.

But then there’s Soto, and if you’re paying attention, you can’t help but be impressed by his immutability, his ability to stay within himself in a sport that often insists that losing — and thereby failure — is contagious. But on days like Saturday, you also can’t help but wonder if the Mets, the team that had aspirations of becoming the East Coast Dodgers, are actually creating East Coast Mike Trout — a generational player whose contributions to the sport are overshadowed by the mismanagement of those around him. (By the way, the only teams with worse records than the Mets are the Royals and Trout’s Angels.)

A darker voice says this, too: “Overshadowed? What about wasted?”

On Saturday, Soto was the lone Met named to the National League All-Star team. It’s a first for him with this franchise, though last year’s near 40-40 season meant that his exclusion then was little more than a snub.

He might not necessarily go alone — there are going to be spots to fill, and you could make an argument that Luke Weaver and even Huascar Brazoban deserve consideration — but really, has anyone else in that lineup deserved the nod?

Soto was slashing .297/.406/.565 with 18 homers and 41 RBIs entering Saturday. His .971 OPS and his 165 weighted runs created plus both led the National League. His 2.8 WAR was nearly one game higher than any other player on this roster, and he managed that despite missing 19 games with a calf injury.

But since Soto joined the Mets, they had a .476 winning percentage entering Saturday, and it was that high only because they managed to cobble together 2 1⁄2 months of good baseball back in the halcyon days of spring 2025.

Soto paused when asked what he is most proud of this year.

“There’s not much stuff to be pleased with,” he said Saturday. “But definitely, we’ve been trying out best. I definitely see guys grinding. That’s one of the things I’m really proud of — the work ethic that my teammates have.”

Soto went on to say that he is seriously weighing whether to be part of the Home Run Derby. “Philadelphia, it seems like it’s going to be fun,” he said with a smile, reminding us that this is a guy who genuinely finds joy in his job. His favorite part? “[Watching] all those superstars playing on one team.”

Of course, with the Mets featuring the second-highest payroll in baseball, Soto has the opportunity to play with a lineup full of superstars every day. Injuries, poor roster construction and underperformance have made that dream impossible, but Soto stayed steady.

He has “elite focus,” interim manager Andy Green said. “I had Mark McGwire as a hitting coach [with the Padres] and we talked about his run when he hit 70 [home runs] and the level of focus that’s required to do that day in and day out, how much noise he had to block out to do that . . . The great ones have that type of focus that goes beyond what us average people have.”

Even when there’s nothing around them but rubble.

“I think that’s what makes him really special,” Green said. “Certainly, everybody’s numbers tend to be better when your team is performing well . . . We help each other by playing really well and doing our jobs really well. He hasn’t had that and he’s still, I think, leading the National League in OPS right now, so there’s not much more you can ask of a guy like that. It’s been special.”

But it’s a shame that another season like this is for naught and that there’s little hope for optimism right now. Soto is only 27, but 27-year-olds age, too.

For his part, Soto was genuinely excited about making the All-Star team, even though it’s his fifth selection with his fourth team. A big part of that has to do with the fact that he got in via fan vote: A somewhat polarizing figure last season, he looked headed for another snub after the first phase of voting was released. He was ranked ninth, with only six outfield spots available. Much of that likely had to do with how poorly his team has performed.

Asked about that, Green could only shrug. The people around him here appreciate Soto, he said. “It’s really up to you guys [in the media] to determine if it's sufficient or not. For me, he’s captured my attention every single day.”

When Phase 2 voting was announced a few days ago, Soto had ascended to second among outfielders.

“I’ve got to thank all the fans in the Dominican Republic [who] make it possible [and] thanks to the people of New York, too,” he said. “They really voted a lot. Mets fans are unbelievable. I really appreciate everything that they’ve done for me these past two years.  I think it’s great seeing where I [started] the votes and then seeing where I finished is incredible.”

For the Mets’ sake, you hope his tenure in Flushing takes the same trajectory, because what a shame it would be for it to always be Juan Soto . . . and then everyone else.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.