Washington Nationals: Juan Soto hits home run in 2nd MLB at bat

Juan Soto did something that only six other players have done in the last 40 years: Go deep for his first MLB hit before turning 20.

The hype surrounding Washington Nationals outfield prospect Juan Soto has been fairly intense since he finished the 2017 season demolishing class-A pitching. Baseball America had him ranked as the 28th best prospect to start the year, and Fangraphs slotted him in at 50 on their list.

Our own Benjamin Chase had him ranked 33rd. He had mashed his way through rookie ball and class-A in 2017 but had yet to face advanced pitching. The tools were there. Now all he had to do was show they would play at higher levels.

He returned to class-A to start the 2018 season and upped his wRC+ from 172 to 244 in 16 games. He then moved on to high-A for a mere 15 games and didn’t miss a beat with a 235 wRC+. After that, it was just eight games at AA with a 173.

All told, across the three levels in 62 games, he belted 17 home runs. That’s about a 44 HR pace over 162 games. So what did he do in his second game at the major league level, at the tender age of 19 no less? This:

Yep. That’s a teenager taking an outside fastball the other way for a 422 foot home run. It came off the bat at 26 degrees with a 107 MPH exit velocity. That’s no cheapie. That’s a man’s home run hit by a boy named Juan Soto.

That’s a lot of numbers. What do they tell us?

To put that into context, balls hit at 107 MPH had an average of .728 last season with a wOBA of .923. Balls with a launch angle of 26 degrees had an average of .510 and a wOBA of .823. He did both on that swing. And that wasn’t even the best part.

This kid, again, just 19 years old, decided it wasn’t enough to go bridge for his first hit as a major leaguer. No, he had to top that off with an imitation of the best player on the Nationals as he approached the bench.

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The Bryce Harper hair flip was the cherry on the sundae. There is no better way for a young hitter to break into the majors. Juan Soto has arrived and he’s likely here to stay. And with a swing like that, the sky’s the limit for him.

*Disclaimer. Sorry for the confusion on our original posting of the article. One of our titles reflects it incorrectly, which we can not change at this point. It was not the first at-bat in which Juan Soto homered, but his second game/at-bat and first start — also his first career hit.