Remember when Juan Soto signed the biggest contract is professional sports history?
At the time, most fans and pundits asked a simple question: Could anyone, even someone as generationally great as Juan Soto, live up to a deal worth $765 million?
His profile and track record was so impressive, so jaw-dropping, that there was a logical argument to be made that Soto could earn every penny on that deal in Queens. Even if he couldn't replicate his near-flawless performance from 2024, the outfielder was just that much better than all of his contemporaries.
Well, the 2024 version of Soto hasn't shown up yet in a Mets uniform. Nor has the 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 or any version of Soto we've seen to this point. In 2025, he's looks downright... human. What's going on?
Juan Soto's struggles are concerning, but not unfixable
In 2024, Soto ranked in the 98th percentile or higher in the following categories among all qualified MLB hitters: xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel%, hard-hit%, chase%, and walk rate. His bat speed and squared ball rate were also in the top 10% among all hitters.
Considering he did that at 25 years old for the American League pennant winners while slashing .288/.419/.569, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that Soto was worthy of the contract the Mets handed him.
But here at the end of April, 123 plate appearances into his first season with New York's "other" team, Soto has a .770 OPS and is performing worse in every metric noted above. He is actually making more contact and whiffing less this year, but he's not hitting the ball as hard and he's just not squaring it up as frequently.
Digging into his profile, there's clearly an approach conundrum at play. Last year, Soto made a conscious choice to fit his swing for Yankee Stadium — specifically with designs on taking aim at the short right field porch.
That worked a treat, as Soto pulled a career-high 42.3% of his batted balls and hit 41 home runs. Out of all the balls he put in play in 2024, Soto pulled a whopping 19.1% of them in the air and pulled just 23.2% of them on the ground.
Turn your attention back to 2025, though, and some issues arise. Soto is still pulling the ball at a similar rate (41.7%), but just 11.9% of his batted balls have been pulled fly balls. His pulled ground-ball rate is up to 29.8%.
As a consequence of this, Soto is using the whole field less than ever. His 17.9% opposite field batted ball rate is the lowest in his career by a mile, and nearly 10 percentage points lower than the 27.2 rate he posted as a rookie in 2018.
Citi Field just isn't tailored to a pull-heavy approach for lefty hitters in the same way Yankee Stadium is, and it's clear Soto is still re-learning that old approach. A lot of his immediate issues could simply be solved by the outfielder hitting more balls in the air again, but until his contact becomes more authoratative, even those extra fly balls wouldn't lead to significantly more damage.
The good news from all of this is that the Mets are still 19-9 despite Soto's early-season struggles. They have the best record in baseball and their best player isn't even playing near his best. That's something worth celebrating.
Given his track record, don't expect Soto to keep struggling for long. There's no doubt he and the Mets' coach staff have identified these issues and are actively working to make Soto the well-rounded hitter he was before he prioritized slugging with the Yankees.
Should that old version of Soto show up on these 2025 Mets... watch out.