Alarm bells and red flags are being raised around Juan Soto by every know-it-all, shock jock, and crosstown sympathizer out there.
This is the state of a concerning amount of sports media nowadays, as the line between journalism and rage-baiting is so blurred at times, fans are taking the words of those with no authority as gospel.
Everyone is seemingly in it for the reaction, for the clicks, for the likes. And when it comes to Soto, who made the unorthodox decision to leave the Yankees to join the Mets for a North American sports record of $765 million, the magnifying glass will not be more intensely fixated on any other athlete in the Big Apple.
Rightfully so.
Soto is supposed to be the missing link that helps make the Mets into a perennial contender, which is something the franchise has never attained. But his start to life in Queens has been an underwhelming one. In his first 47 games entering Tuesday night’s meeting with the Boston Red Sox, he is slashing .246/.376/.439 (.815 OPS) with eight home runs and 20 RBI.
His current on-base and slugging percentage, along with his OPS, would be on pace for career lows, which makes his lack of hustle in recent days all the more notable. Surely, no one would mind nearly as much if the Mets had not lost four of their last five games while Soto was sporting his career .946 OPS.
The analytics continue to suggest that Soto is running into more bad luck than anything. Just take a look at where he ranks amongst current major leaguers, according to Baseball Savant:
| CATEGORY | STAT | PERCENTILE IN MLB |
| Expected Weighted On-Base Average | .435 | 98th |
| Expected Batting Average | .310 | 96th |
| Expected Slugging | .601 | 96th |
| Average Exit Velocity | 94.2 mph | 96th |
| Barrel% | 13.6% | 81st |
| Hard-Hit% | 55% | 94th |
| Chase% | 15.5% | 100th |
| Whiff% | 19.2% | 79th |
| Strikeout% | 15.7% | 82nd |
| Walk% | 17.6% | 99th |
It is little consolation for the stat sheet, though, as his slow start has every so-called expert relaying messages about how the 26-year-old is unhappy with the Mets, or something is wrong with his body language, and that he instantly regrets leaving the Yankees.
As a matter of convenience, most of these rumors have stemmed from Yankees columnists, or their play-by-play man, or even speculation from former players.
How exhausting would this be to keep up for the next 14-and-a-half years?
This is only the second month of Soto’s decade-and-a-half contract, only 47 games into the potential 2,382 regular-season contests that lie before him during that deal. That’s 1.9% of his contract.
If mediocre 47-game starts ran prominent players out of Queens, the Mets’ history books would be a lot more scarce.
Keith Hernandez had a .786 OPS with six home runs and 23 RBI in his first 47 games with the Mets after being traded from the powerhouse St. Louis Cardinals in 1983 — a move that was considered a career death sentence.
The 1986 World Series champion’s No. 17 is adorned upon the left-field facade at Citi Field.
Gary Carter batted .240 with a .741 OPS, six home runs, and 24 RBI in his first 47 games with the Mets after being acquired in December of 1984 from the Montreal Expos.
His contributions in New York, which included a third-place finish in the NL MVP voting in his first season with the Mets, helped cement his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Carlos Beltran had an .821 OPS with seven home runs and 27 RBI during his first 47 games as a Met in 2005. He finished that year with a .744 OPS, 16 home runs, and 78 RBI in 151 games.
He is likely headed to Cooperstown, where he could very well be wearing a Mets cap.
Francisco Lindor, the star shortstop destined to assume the throne as Mets captain, slashed .194/.292/.303 (.595 OPS) with four home runs and 11 RBI in his first 47 games in Queens after being acquired from the Cleveland Guardians ahead of the 2021 season.
Slow starts had become commonplace for him, including last year’s catastrophic April and May. He turned it around to finish second in the NL MVP voting.
Even Mike Piazza, acquired in May of the 1998 season from the Florida Marlins, was being booed and scrutinized amid a 47-game start with the Mets in which he batted .330 with a .924 OPS because he seemed too standoffish.
Sound familiar?
The star catcher became the backbone of the franchise and is one of only two players wearing a Mets cap on his plaque in Cooperstown, despite the diagnosis from body language experts.
Perhaps two months is too small a sample size to leap to overarching, dramatic conclusions, especially when Soto has proven time and time again over the first eight seasons of his big-league career that he is a generational talent.
