Soto soaks up theatrical jeers in return to Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK -- Even before most of the crowd of 47,700 stood to acknowledge him in a jeering, sneering congregation, Juan Soto couldn’t help a grin from crawling across his face. As he strode toward home plate Friday in the first inning of his first trip back to Yankee Stadium as a visitor, Soto chuckled and approached the left-handed batter’s box.

Then he removed his helmet and waved it to a ballpark full of fans raining vitriol down upon him.

“He knew that was coming,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.

“I was ready for it,” added Soto.

It was the most memorable moment of the night for Soto, who didn’t have too much early influence over a 6-2 Mets loss to the Yankees. Soto couldn’t stop Tylor Megill from walking a career-high-tying five batters any more than he could keep Aaron Judge from reaching base three times. But he still managed to spend most of the evening as the center of attention, calling it the worst he’s ever been booed.

“You’ve got to embrace it,” Soto said. “At the end of day, whatever they give you, it is what it is. You’ve got to be a professional. You’ve got to take it as a man. I was just enjoying the moment.”

For Soto, Friday marked a return to the place he called home for one season -- the place many local fans figured he would stay forever. Entering free agency, the Yankees naturally profiled as the favorites to retain his services. For much of the past three decades, they’ve been among the favorites to sign just about anyone they wanted in free agency -- particularly their own free agents, like Judge and Soto.

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But this offseason proved different. From the jump, deep-pocketed Mets owner Steve Cohen targeted Soto as the rare type of player young enough and talented enough to pursue at any cost. “Any cost” turned out to be 15 years and $765 million, the largest contract in professional sports history. Soto signed on the dotted line. Thus began a months-long mourning process for those displeased that Soto had rejected the Yankees’ final offer of 16 years and $760 million.

On Friday, they had their first chance to voice that displeasure not on social media, not on talk radio, but in person at the ballpark with Soto present as a captive audience. Five times, Soto strode to the plate. Five times, the crowd booed him. (He finished 0-for-2 with three walks, for all that mattered to the home fans.) As Soto jogged out to right field for the first time, Yankee Stadium’s infamous “Bleacher Creatures” turned their backs to him. Later, when he flipped the final out of the eighth inning into the stands, a fan flung it back onto the field.

“It was a pretty great environment,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Certainly one of those nights where you can really feel the energy in the building.”

Finally in the ninth, as the Mets mustered enough of a rally to prompt the Yankees to bring closer Luke Weaver into the game, Soto flied out to center to end things.

“It’s just another game,” Soto said. “It’s really uncomfortable that we didn’t get the win. I don’t focus on the fans. We’ve got to focus on the game, being a professional and trying to win the game.”

The evening was, of course, merely a snapshot; the full narrative arc of Soto’s decision will play out over the next 15 years. Will he win a title, or multiple? An MVP or two or three? A batting title? A home run crown? As one of the game’s best players, Soto is capable of any or all of those feats. Whether he achieves them will matter far more in the end than the opinions of a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd.

So far this season, Soto has been good, not great. His batting average and slugging percentage are both at their lowest points since 2022. He’s on pace for 29 home runs, which would also mark a three-year low.

But Soto has shown some recent signs of rounding into form. In April, his expected batting average and slugging percentage sat at .268 and .430, respectively. Over the first two weeks of May, those marks were .422 and 1.074, largely because he began hitting the ball harder. While Soto still hasn’t delivered a signature game for the Mets, that only seems like a matter of time.

Perhaps it will happen later this weekend at Yankee Stadium, where the Mets have two games left to play. If it doesn’t, Soto said, it won’t be because of the atmosphere in the Bronx.

“If someone’s able to handle it,” Mendoza said, “it’s Juan Soto.”