The minute the headline blared about Juan Soto acknowledging his at-bats are different without the luxury of Aaron Judge behind him, it became a talking point for those looking to fill time on radio and television, thus creating a written story, especially when the Yankee captain was quizzed about the comment at some point Tuesday.
Since leaving the Yankees for a massive 15-year, $765 million deal, Soto has played 12 games with the Mets and before Monday’s game in Minnesota, he explained the differences to the New York Post where he went in depth in the plan of attack by opposing pitchers at least as much as possible without divulging trade secrets.
Soto is up 74 plate appearances as a Met and seen 278 pitches, only putting the barrel on his 49 batted balls four times so far, something he did 91 times in his lone season in the same lineup with Judge.
He is not necessarily being pitched differently in his early weeks with the Mets. He is seeing a four-seam fastball 22.7 percent of the time (it was 23.8 percent last year when he hit 17 homers and batted .327) but this year he is 3-for-14 on those pitches. Perhaps the biggest difference and it’s not that drastic is sliders, a pitch he is seeing 12.6 percent of the time this year as opposed to 15.2 percent last season.
“I had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me. I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that,” Soto told the New York Post before hitting his second homer Monday and his third homer the next night.
He is seeing this startegy while hitting ahead of Pete Alonso, whose power is on a prolific level slightly similar to Judge and is hitting for average the best he ever has since hitting 53 homers as a rookie in 2019 – one year after Soto debuted. Hitting ahead of Alonso is after he hit ahead of Manny Machado often in San Diego and Howie Kendrick during the 2019 Washington Nationals’ run to the World Series.
Soto’s comments were more of introspective and somewhat analytical look at his early weeks with the Mets, which along with his businesslike persona out of the Derek Jeter playbook is why Judge wasn’t engaging in the topic as if he was “Aaron from the Bronx” to a call-in show.
“I’m not really going to go back and forth with this,” Judge told reporters about five-plus hours before Jasson Dominguez finished off one of the best at-bats of his brief career with a bases-clearing double on a 1-2 fastball against a lefty “He’s got probably one of the best hitters in the game behind him right now in what [Pete] Alonso is doing. It has been fun to watch. He’s hitting close to .400. He’s driving the ball all over the field, driving guys in. So they’re gonna be good.”
It was more of a bemusement approach like the time Judge was asked about torpedo bats in another story that quickly came and went from the news cycle and talk radio circuits.
Soto is hardly bemoaning missing Judge, it is just an acknowledgment he is the main menu item on the opposing scouting report as the Mets’ biggest threat like when Barry Bonds was constantly facing the questions about teams pitching to him. Last year, he blended in behind Judge’s 58 homers and finished third in the AL MVP voting while Judge saw virtually all of the career-high 2,960 pitches Soto faced from the on-deck circle.
Judge saw some of those pitches during a slow start for the AL home run record holder. He was hitting slightly under .200 through the first month and this year is off to a fast start anchoring a lineup with two former MVPs in Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt along with five other homegrown players on a regular basis.
“You can’t replace a guy like Soto. He’s one of one. That’s why he signed the deal he did,” Judge said.
Soto will certainly live up to the deal and by the time his final numbers are finished, the discourse about his insightful answer about opposing pitching strategy will be long in the past, though they might get rehashed when the Mets and Yankees get together May 16-18 in the Bronx, where some people might plan on profane chants for someone who enjoyed his lone year with the Yankees and is still adjusting to a new situation while clearly fitting in with his new set of teammates.
