Juan Soto Reacts to Criticism of $765M Mets Contract, 'I Don't Listen to Any of That'

New York Mets star Juan Soto isn't giving any attention to the recent discourse around his performance and effort level to start the 2025 MLB season.

"I don't listen to any of that," he told reporters after Saturday's 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. "I focus on what we're doing in here."

Soto went 2-for-5 and hit a two-run double in the fourth to give New York the lead. He was about a foot away from a grand slam as his drive to deep right center hit off the wall.

That was his first extra-base hit since he homered in a 7-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on May 9.

The Mets and their fans will hope this is a sign of what's to come since the four-time All-Star is performing a little below his usual standards.

Soto boasts a 126 OPS+ and he has already accounted for 1.6 WAR through 50 games, per Baseball Reference. For a lot of players, that would qualify as a success so far.

However, Soto's OPS+ is on pace to be a career low and it's hard to look past his .236/.369/.418 slash line. Such is life when you just signed a $765 million contract and play in the most unforgiving sports market in the United States.

If the 26-year-old were slugging .569 like he did with the New York Yankees in 2024, his perceived level of hustle almost certainly wouldn't be as much of an issue. When he's not meeting his massive expectations at the plate, it becomes more glaring when he doesn't leg out a ground ball to second base or admires a hit for too long and winds up with a single instead of a double.

Soto's peripherals are still off the charts. According to Baseball Savant, he ranks in the 99th percentile in expected slugging (.589) and in the 96th percentile in both average exit velocity (94.0 mph) and hard hit rate (55.9 percent).

Some of his numbers are purely down to bad luck. His .257 batting average on balls in play lags far below his career BABIP (.302), per FanGraphs.

Soto doesn't have to do anything differently at the plate and his stats might start to tick upward.

In terms of the bigger picture, he's learning what it's like to be a star athlete in New York — if he didn't have an understanding of that already. No matter what you've done in the past, you're always under the microscope.