Juan Soto returned from the injured list on Saturday and immediately fouled a ball off his shin, causing a moment of panic among Mets fans that he was going to go right back on to the IL. After a few moments of pain suppression, Soto returned to the at-bat and promptly singled. A collective “Whew!” was uttered by the Mets universe.
This did not have to happen. In my opinion, with 26 games remaining in the season and the team mired in tenth place in a three-team wildcard race, there is no value in putting your highly paid superstar back onto the field to risk severe injury.
I am sure that Juan Soto wanted to return. He loves to play baseball, and he is so good at the game that he did not even need a rehab assignment to restore his timing. Soto has had a very durable career, having played in at least 150 games in every full season of his career (all seasons except his rookie call-up year and the 2020 pandemic season). Soto doesn’t think he will get hurt, but then again, what player (other than Jorge Polanco) expects to get hurt when they step on the field. Stuff happens.
It should be up to the front office to decide whether to risk his health to play. The front office certainly doesn’t want something to happen to Soto. They also have call-ups ahead of them and players to evaluate, so it would benefit them to have Soto’s active roster spot to use. Did they cave to his pressure? Are they coddling the star? Or is it a lapse in judgement? Certainly, it is not an attempt to win, otherwise they would not be running some of the non-productive pitchers and position players out there with regularity.
There are no incentives in Soto’s contract that he would miss if he sat out the last month. He is not going to compete for MVP, not going to make the World Series, not going to earn a Silver Slugger, and not going to garner a post-season award even if he hits 1.000 in the last (now 24) games. He currently has a .283 average with 22 HR and 54 RBI in 300 at-bats.
There is no “team bonding” reason to play him for the last month. That opportunity has been there all year, and frankly there are several players on the team that will not wear Mets uniforms last year anyway.
I remain confounded. 24 meaningless games remain, and with no tangible reason why the team would want to endanger their superstar other than his insistence on playing, why does his name show up in the lineup? Why is he playing all nine innings when he is listed?
Sideline Soto. Save his health. Do it for the franchise. Make sure the public knows that it was not Soto’s choice so he doesn’t worry about being called “soft”. But for the sake of our future, protect this asset.
3 comments:
He’s a beast who calls his own health shots.
He has missed 51 games this year. Next year, a strike?
Some Hall of Fame numbers are based on quantity…HR, RBI, hits. He can’t add to those by sitting.
Manaea called him a beast, watching him work hard to return to play.
I agree with you Paul but my guess is Soto pulled the 'shots' here
Let’s say Soto has a career unstated goal of 3000 hits. Well, he is 1,829 hits (61%) short of that.
He needs 1,329 more hits than his current 1,171 just to reach 2,500.
500 HRs, at a minimum? Needs 234 more.
If his target is 600 HR, he needs 334 more.
He can’t afford to miss games.
He wants to not just be a HOF, but one of the greats.
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