QUEENS, NY — The sparse crowd at Citi Field on Wednesday afternoon for a quickly rescheduled game with the threat of bad weather only highlighted the growing unrest from Mets fans toward Juan Soto.
For the third time in four games, the superstar right-fielder and $765 million man went hitless, going 0-for-4 at the plate in Wednesday’s series-finale loss to the Chicago White Sox, where he received the loudest boos yet.
The first boos came when he led off the fifth inning with a swinging strikeout. They grew louder with each of his next two at-bats, which resulted in weak groundouts to first base.
“You’re going to see frustration, especially with a competitor like he is,” manager Carlos Mendoza said when asked about Soto’s mindset.
Soto himself was not available for comment after the game.
While the start to his Mets career has not met the 26-year-old’s usual standards, this may be the lowest point of Soto’s slump. He is 2-for-27 in his last seven games with four walks and eight strikeouts.
Through his first 55 games as a Met, he is batting .224 with an OPS that has dropped to .745 and an OPS-plus of 115, while the league average is 100.
Yes, there has been an undeniable amount of bad luck. Soto’s analytics suggest that his batting average should be 70 points higher and his slugging percentage should be .569 instead of .393.
Over these last seven games, Soto has hit five balls with an exit velocity over 100 mph, yet all five resulted in outs — the most unusual being Tuesday night when Brandon Nimmo thought Soto’s 109.9 mph hit to center was caught. It wasn’t, and Soto passed him between first and second, leading to an out.
It was recorded as a groundout to first.
“It’s just one of those things. When you look at the eye test — I don’t have to refer to the analytics because the guy continues to hit the ball hard,” Mendoza said. “Maybe he’s hitting more ground balls, but [Tuesday] was a perfect example of his season so far: 0-for-4 with three balls hit over 100 mph, and one of them goes down as a groundball to first base when he hits a bullet to right field. It’s hard to explain. But that’s baseball. He’s too good of a hitter, too good of a player. He’ll be Juan Soto.”
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