Juan Soto in his first press conference as a New Yorker, CC by Liscense 2.0
Major League Baseball has started its long offseason in 2024. There is no set schedule or deadline for when teams will make huge moves, and this year’s offseason is no different : An obvious exception was the mega contract signed by Juan Soto for 15 years – 785 million dollars. Today, let’s take a look at the move and see what the signing says about the future of the New York Mets.
Juan Soto NYM $785M/15 YRS
The biggest move since signing Ohtani last year was signing Juan Soto with the New York Mets, though the Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays were rumored to be interested in signing the 26-year-old. , it never really felt like it could be anyone but the Yankees or the Mets. sticking it to their cross-town rivals in the Bronx. Mets owner Steve Cohen was simply not going to outdo himself in the process, lining his deep pockets with this contract. In fact, this contract is the largest in sports history. If anyone should sign this type of contract, it would be Mets savior Steve Cohen.
One big criticism of this contract was that it was simply overpaid for one player, even if it’s Juan Soto. Baseball casuals will look at his career average and be confused as to how a .285 hitter signed the largest contract ever Allotment is more than enough to buy multiple superstars, not just one. I think Juan Soto was always going to make a deal like this. Owners knew that this is what it would take to acquire a player of his caliber like Ohtani, the value of having Juan Soto on your baseball team is much more than what he literally produces as a player and the amount of merchandise will be more than enough for the duration of his contract to offset the heavy salary hit.Besides, Steve Cohen just doesn’t care. He’s burning money has, and nothing will stop him from having the best product possible on the baseball diamond.
Still, why sign Soto? advanced measurements help give a better idea of ​​what kind of player he is.Up until now, his stats in 2024 were just as impressive. The left-handed slugger hit 41 home runs and slashed .288/.419/569 for a good .988 OPS. An on-base percentage sitting at .419 should tell you all you need to know is at an elite level. His walk percentage rating is 100th. He also rarely strikes out. He ranks in the 79th percentile of strikeouts only by 16.7%.
While Soto is certainly getting paid for what he does when he’s not swinging the bat, his pure offensive numbers are also otherworldly is the 100th percentile for expected wOBA (weighted on-base average) and expected batting average. With this xBA statistic, the numbers say 316 batting average in 2024, compared to his .285. This suggests that Soto was getting a bit off with his average numbers, which is also consistent with his expected slugging to the numbers, as his xSLG was .646 compared to his actual SLG of .569.
What’s most impressive to me about Soto is his ability to lift the baseball when he wants to. Because he’s such a patient hitter, one would expect his exit velocity to not be elite all the time that Soto ranks in the 98th percentile for average exit velocity, 99th in both barrel % and hard hitting %, and 94th in % squared. Soto is again elite, coming in at the 94th percentile. It’s incredible to see all these percentages from just one player. It’s no surprise that Savant has His Batting Run Value is in the 100th percentile. it’s nowhere near the type of production he has as a hitter.
Soto has negative values ​​in the baserunning (-3) and field run (-1) categories on his Savant page. This certainly tarnishes his otherwise perfect percentages. ) is in the 14th percentile.Another very fair criticism of his signing is that Steve Cohen just signed the biggest contract in history with a player who will be a DH for most of his career. Soto has done nothing to deny this fate, but 2025 will likely be the start of Juan Soto’s 10th percentile. that Soto is a slow runner (36th percentile), but this is a clear negative for Soto’s ability as an athlete.
All criticism of the Juan Soto signing will be silenced by a Mets World Series win in 2025. This team seems poised to make it happen after making the NLCS last season. In fact, if the Mets could walk away with at least three World Series wins on Soto’s contract In the meantime, there will be no doubt that this was a fantastic signing that Steve Cohen has locked down for the foreseeable future the most accomplished, disciplined hitter. When Juan Soto’s career is over, there’s always the fear that they’ll blow up in your owner’s face. His baserunning and fielding are worth it were never going to pay him. He could very easily become one of the best hitters of all time. Watch out making Soto’s first season as a member of the Mets extremely entertaining and fantastic for the sport of baseball.
