NEW YORK -- For all Juan Soto's fits and starts, his lack of immediate domination in Queens and the stream of public criticism that came along with that, it’s almost easy to overlook the fact that Soto has been really, really good as a Met.
Like really, really, really good.
Soto’s two home runs Wednesday lifted the Mets to a 7-3 win over the Braves, New York’s second victory in its last 12 games. His first homer keyed a five-run outburst in the fourth inning at Citi Field, while his second moved him past Jimmie Foxx for the most multihomer games in Major League history by a player before turning 27. Soto said he grew emotional after that latter home run, because he understood the weight of the record.
"That was pretty cool for me,” he added.
All told, Soto finished 2-for-4 with a pair of solo homers off Didier Fuentes and Austin Cox, which landed in almost the exact same spot in right-center field. His 27 career multihomer games put him atop a list that includes Hall of Famers Foxx, Mel Ott and Eddie Mathews. Soto also has 10 home runs in June, tied with Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez for the most in the Majors, including five in his last five games.
“He’s a pretty spectacular player,” said Mets reliever Ryne Stanek. “There’s only a handful of guys in the game who are even capable of doing what he’s doing.”
Even by Soto’s standards, this has been a banner month. Last week, he recorded his 1,000th career hit. (Soto has since added seven more.)
Wednesday, he joined Darryl Strawberry (May 1987) as the only Mets to produce a calendar month with at least 10 homers and 20 walks.
Soto now leads his team in homers, runs, walks (of course), on-base percentage (also of course) and bWAR. He even has nine stolen bases.
"That’s why you pay a ticket to come watch a baseball game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “To see something like that, it’s a show. You pay to watch this guy get up to the plate.”
If Mets officials were at all troubled about Soto’s production in the first season of his 15-year, $765 million contract (they weren’t), he has rather emphatically erased all concerns. The season is now at its exact halfway mark. Soto is on pace to hit .256/.393/.505 with 28 doubles, 38 homers, a potential franchise record 132 walks and, just for kicks, a career-high 18 steals.
It would not be the best season of Soto’s career by any stretch of the imagination. But it would still be an awfully good one, putting him on the fringes of the National League MVP conversation.
"It’s starting to happen,” Soto said. “My swing, everything is going the right way. … Finally, the cold weather is gone, so I can have fun now.”
And if Soto maintains anything close to his June production throughout the midsummer months, his final numbers will look even better. As recently as the morning of June 6, Soto held a .797 OPS -- solid for most players but well below his standards. He collected three hits that night, homered twice the following week and hasn’t looked back since. Over the last 19 days, he’s raised his OPS more than 100 points.
"Most people would destroy themselves to try to put up the numbers he’s putting up currently, and he’s just getting better over the course of our year,” Stanek said. “He’s good at pretty much everything in the box -- elite zone control, elite bat-to-ball, elite power, he runs well. Everything you want in an offensive player, he does.”
It’s not surprising that only some of the comparisons Soto elicits are with contemporaries like Mike Trout, Aaron Judge and Ronald Acuña Jr., the latter of whom said Soto “makes me feel really competitive and makes me want to get out there and play against him.”
The more impressive Soto comparisons tend to revolve around players like Foxx and Ott and Ted Williams -- those of the bygone eras that Soto evokes.
"He’s going to be a Hall of Famer,” Stanek said. “And I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a few that I think are going to be Hall of Famers. He’s definitely one of the best I’ve ever played with, for sure.”
Stanek, a nine-year veteran, rattled off some of those names before circling back to Soto.
"He’s a generational player,” Stanek said. “He has been since he showed up at, what, 19? He showed up as one of the best players in the game, and he still is.”