Outfielder Juan Soto just learned a very hard lesson about life with the New York Mets
A big reason why the New York Mets were comfortable giving outfielder Juan Soto a record 15 year deal worth $765 million was because the likely future Hall of Famer spent the 2024 season playing with the New York Yankees. The pressure of playing in New York has famously been tough on superstars in various […]
A big reason why the New York Mets were comfortable giving outfielder Juan Soto a record 15 year deal worth $765 million was because the likely future Hall of Famer spent the 2024 season playing with the New York Yankees.
The pressure of playing in New York has famously been tough on superstars in various sports over the years. Soto's year of experience in the Bronx, however, seemingly made any concerns about the 26-year-old being able to handle the pressure of the Big Apple a moot point.
Soto's year with the Yankees, however, wasn't really the full New York media experience. For starters, Soto had an incredible season, so there wasn't much to criticize from a performance perspective. Secondly, the Yankees went to the World Series. So, again, not much to criticize.
The biggest question that Soto faced throughout the 2024 season was about his free agency, a topic he flawlessly handled with reporters.
On Monday, Soto learned his first real lesson about dealing with the New York media while wearing the orange and blue (part of the New York media I should say…there's a lot of great reporters/writers doing incredible work while covering the Mets/baseball in New York, such as The Athletic's Will Sammon and Tim Britton, MLB.com's Anthony DiComo, NewsDay's Tim Healey and Laura Albanese, and SNY's Andy Martino, among others that I'm sure I'm leaving out).
Soto was essentially caught in a "gotcha" moment while innocently answering a question about his early season "struggles". Entering Monday's game against the Minnesota Twins, Soto had just one home run and four RBIs in the first 15 games of the season (though he was still getting on base at a high clip with an OBP over .400).
The New York Post's Mike Puma (who falls in the same category as those above who do great work on the Mets beat) spoke to Soto about what he's seeing from opposing pitchers this season. Soto acknowledged that he's being pitched differently because he doesn't have Yankees superstar Aaron Judge hitting behind him anymore.
“It’s definitely different,” said Soto to the New York Post before the Mets' game against the Twins. “I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me. I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that. I was pitched differently last year.”
Soto wasn't complaining, he was simply pointing out what he's seeing from opposing pitchers so far this season. There's only one person per night in baseball that gets to hit in front of Judge. Considering Soto fancies himself an all-time great hitter (which he is), I doubt that he views hitting in front of Judge as a requirement for being able to produce at a high level.
Anyway, as you can imagine, that quote led to a litany of mind-numbingly dumb takes.
Perhaps one of the worst takes came from Puma's colleague at The New York Post, Jon Heyman (and this isn't a shot at Heyman, I have plenty of respect for the guy, it's a shot at this particular take).
Heyman suggested that Soto should've kept his thoughts to himself.
Columns like that are why athletes are rarely candid these days. Soto wasn't "lamenting" missing Judge. He wasn't complaining. He was simply telling a reporter what he's been seeing this season. Soto answered honestly, and as a result, it's led to one of the most ridiculous early-season media uproars of 2025.
And by the way, Soto's take was 100 percent correct. He's seeing fewer pitches in the heart of the zone with runners on base than any hitter in baseball (via Baseball Savant, per Will Sammon).
New York sports talk radio, which is often home of the some worst takes you can possibly hear (these dudes live to spew negativity and yell about nonsense), had a field day with Soto's harmless comments.
Look at the way the New York Post is framing the comments (which is unfortunate for Puma, I truly don't believe it was intention for his work to be used this way).
There's a reason that Derek Jeter was famously tight lipped during his 20 seasons with the Yankees. And we might see Soto start to take the same approach after seeing an honest and thoughtful answer become fodder for sports talk shows and tabloid style headlines — instead of thoughtful debate about what pitches Soto is seeing, what counts he's seeing those pitches in, and how his presence (and ability to still get on base) is impacting the hitters around him (Pete Alonso, while not Judge, is off to a sizzling start this year, hitting .345 with a 1.136 OPS and 19 RBIs, just one less than Judge, while hitting behind Soto).
By the way, hours after making those comments to The New York Post, Soto hit a mammoth seventh-inning home run against the Twins.
Soto might be wise to just let his bat do the talking moving forward, which is unfortunate, because hearing one of the game's best hitters talk shop is a gift for those of us who truly love baseball.
Too bad the New York media is trying to mess it up for real baseball fans.
