Soto is a Looser

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Not a loser. But the team is looser without him.

[The Hot Corner]

I believe, that having a crop of new players that are getting their chance to show what they can do after working so hard to get their shot contributes to an exuberance for the games which is contagious.  Also, this is a team with nothing to lose at this point.  So they might as well be loose and enjoy the ride.

[Benjamin Grimm]

About a week ago I estimated that the Mets had to play at around an .800 pace the rest of the way to make the playoffs. Now it's only .786! (33-9). No, I don't think that's going to happen. Not even if I were to go to Peru. But wouldn't that be something?

[Edgy MD]

They had plenty of new players when Soto was healthy.

On the other hand, they had their 12-game losing streak when he was hurt.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'm not saying they can't lose without Soto. What they need to do is prove they can with him.

What I'm saying sounds crazy and hard to justify but Soto is a loser who makes all the players around him worse.

[Cowtipper]

I do think Soto is a big me-first ego. The Soto shuffle is one of the hokiest things I think I've seen. Yan's jumping is childlike and fun, the shuffle is just stupid. 

And I actually tend to agree with Johnny Lunchbucket. But it's not just Soto, though he's the biggest culprit. 

Mets technically still have a 0.1% chance of making the playoffs, per Baseball Reference. 

[Edgy MD]

Perhaps Juan's greatest hit:
 

 

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I don;t think Soto is calculated in any way, he just doesn't know how to act. He thinks "I don't talk to teammates" should be the right answer so he gives it.

Then the other day we had Lindor and Peralta independently acknowledging there was a powwow between the 3 of them, and Soto straight faced says it never happened.

 

Oh he's a bad outfielder too

[smg58]

You would be hard-pressed to find too many non-Dodgers who are 27 or less and have been to the World Series twice, winning one of them.  The three previous teams he's played for have all gotten at least as far as the league championship series with him. 

If you want to argue there are holes in Soto's game, go ahead.  Personally I'd have moved him to first base once it was clear Alonso wasn't coming back.  But he's also been the toughest out in baseball since he was a teenager, and has 40-HR power to boot.  Guys like that win ball games, and then win pennants, as Soto has done.  The list of people (on the field, in the dugout, and upstairs) who have far more obviously let this team down these past two seasons is very long.

[seawolf17]

He is absolutely one of the five best hitters in all of baseball, if not *the* best. So he's not warm and fuzzy. I don't care. Stay healthy and hit.

[Centerfield]

Soto is weird.  A lot of great hitters are weird.  Yo was batshit crazy.  Mike Piazza looked menacing as hell, but was weirdly aloof and had a girly voice.  Carlos Beltran was sensitive.  Soto is just a little bit off.  Fine by me.   

[Benjamin Grimm]

Fine by me too. The Mets missed the playoffs by a single game in 2025. Without Soto it wouldn't have been nearly that close.

[Edgy MD]

Maybe, but without Soto, that $51,875,000 might have spread meaningfully to different outlets.  There are two sides to these equations.

The fun part of his salary is it stays flat through 2039(!!), so that $51 million will presumably be worth far less then (depending on how maliciously the president upends the economy and nation).

On the other hand, he has that opt-out after 2030, which he will likely take, or force the Mets to escalate his salary under the threat of him taking it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That forced escalation isn't by that much though, is it? "Only" a few million a year? Do I have that right? And I think it's after 2029, the fifth year of the contract.

[Edgy MD]

I didn't know there was an agreed-upon amount to get him to not opt-out.  I just figured, as the opt-out loomed, his agent would drag the Mets back to the negotiating table and play hardball.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I found this:

Opt-Out: Contains an opt-out clause after five seasons (following the 2029 season). If Soto opts out, the Mets can void it by bumping his salary to $55 million per year for the final 10 years, raising the total guaranteed value to $805 million

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can't see why he wouldn't opt out to trigger that raise, unless he's in obvious decline and doesn't think that he'd get as high a salary or as many years under a new contract.

[Edgy MD]

Thanks for filling in the data.

Yeah, I imagine something pretty dramatic would likely be going down to keep the opt-out/escalation from being a fait accompli from both ends.  But who knows what transpires between now and 2029?

[Centerfield]

Team Weird

1B.   Mo Vaughn
2B.  Jeff Kent
3B.  Ray Knight
SS.  Rey Ordonez
RF.  Juan Soto
CF.  Carl Everett
LF.  Yoenis Cespedes
C.  Mike Piazza

SP:  Al Leiter
CL:  Edwin Diaz

 

Team Normal

1B.  Keith Hernandez
2B.  Edgardo Alfonso
3B.  David Wright
SS.  Francisco Lindor
RF.  Michael Conforto
CF.  Lance Johnson
LF.  Bernard Gilkey
C.   Gary Carter

SP:  Jacob deGrom
CL:  John Franco

[MFS62]

Not that I'd totally agree with those lists, but it was a fun concept.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Other weirdos: Tug McGraw, Dock Ellis, Turk Wendell.

Carl Everett, of course, is sort of a captain of Team Weird.