Mike Piazza Says Juan Soto's Going Through 'Rite of Passage' Amid Struggles with Mets

The recent discussion about Juan Soto's lack of hustle on a couple of plays and some disappointment in his offensive performance has led to panic among New York Mets fans, something that many players in high-pressure environments are familiar with.

One of those players is former Mets star Mike Piazza, who told Jon Heyman of the New York Post that Soto is going through a "rite of passage" with the fanbase.

Piazza, who was acquired by New York midway through the 1998 season, endured his own struggles in his first full year with the club. He was hitting .262/.304/.431 through his first 16 games in 1999 that also included a two-week absence due to a knee injury.

Things turned around quickly for Piazza, who finished that season with a .303/.361/.575 slash line and 40 homers in 141 games.

Soto has been the subject of criticism recently for not running hard out of the box on a groundout late in Sunday's loss to the New York Yankees and then again on Monday against the Boston Red Sox when he thought a ball he hit to left field was gone, but instead it hit the top of the Green Monster and he only got to first base.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had a discussion with Soto about the situation, but declined to offer specifics about their conversation when asked by reporters prior to Tuesday's game against Boston.

Any notion that Soto is having a bad year is being dramatically overblown. He's entering play on Wednesday with a .247/.379/.437 slash line and a 134 OPS+ in 48 games.

By comparison, Piazza's 1999 season amounted to a 135 OPS+ because it accounts for the difference in offensive era. The only player on the Mets with a higher OPS+ than Soto this season in at least 100 plate appearances is Pete Alonso (168).

Soto's numbers are a disappointment relative to what he did in 2024 with the Yankees and within the context of a player who signed the richest contract in pro sports history (15 years, $765 million) during the offseason.

The hope was that Soto could have the same type of impact on his new team that Shohei Ohtani did in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That's an unfair standard because they are very different types of players, but it's what happens when you compare superstars.

Add in the pressure of playing for a New York-based team, suddenly Soto finds himself having to answer questions that don't totally match what he's actually doing.

If Mets fans want a reason to be encouraged, many of Soto's underlying numbers suggest he's going to get better as the season goes along. He ranks in the 90th percentile or higher in hard-hit rate, squared-up rate, expected batting average and expected slugging percentage.

The closest parallel in Soto's career for what he's doing so far this year is the 2022 season when he hit .242/.401/.452 because of an unusually-low batting average on balls in play that was 54 points worse than his career mark(.249).

It doesn't help that Soto is trying to work his way out of a modest slump at the same time the Mets are going through their first real rough patch of the season. They have lost three straight and five of the last six games overall.

If the biggest problem for the Mets this year is Soto is merely good by the standard he has set than otherworldly like he was in 2024, they are going to be just fine.