Juan Soto

Juan José Soto Pacheco (born October 25, 1998) is a Dominican professional baseball outfielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres, and New York Yankees. Soto is a six-time Silver Slugger Award winner and four-time All-Star.

Soto signed with the Nationals as an international free agent in 2015. He made his MLB debut in 2018 and was the runner-up for the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award. In 2019, he played a key part in the Nationals' first World Series championship, earning him the Babe Ruth Award. In 2020, he won the National League batting title with a .351 average. After being traded to the Padres at the 2022 trade deadline, Soto was dealt to the Yankees following the 2023 season. In his lone season with the team, he reached the 2024 World Series and finished third in American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting. After becoming a free agent for the first time in his career, Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets in the offseason, the largest contract in professional sports history.

Soto is renowned for his exceptional plate discipline and known for his unique batter's box movements, dubbed the "Soto Shuffle."

Early life

Soto was born on October 25, 1998, to Juan Soto Sr. and Belkis Pacheco. He has an older sister and a younger brother, Elian, who signed with the Nationals as an international free agent once he became eligible in January 2023. His father was a salesman and a catcher in a local men's league and encouraged his sons to make baseball their passion. Soto is naturally right-handed and was encouraged by his father to throw left-handed for an athletic advantage.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Soto signed with the Washington Nationals as an international free agent for a $1.5 million signing bonus in July 2015. He made his professional debut in 2016 with the Gulf Coast League Nationals in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League (GCL) and was named the GCL's most valuable player after hitting .368 with five home runs and 32 runs batted in (RBIs). In September 2016 he was promoted to the Auburn Doubledays of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League near the end of the 2016 season. Appearing in six games for the Doubledays, he went 9-for-21 (.429) with three doubles and an RBI. He finished the 2016 season with an overall batting average of .368, five home runs, and 32 RBIs.

Promoted to play with the Hagerstown Suns of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2017, Soto got off to a hot start before injuring his ankle while sliding into home in a game on May 2 and landing on the disabled list. At the time of his injury, he was batting .360 with three home runs in 23 games with the Suns. In July 2017, MLB Pipeline ranked Soto the Nationals' second-best prospect and the 42nd-best among all prospects. Soto did not return to the Suns in 2017, but he had two rehabilitation stints with the GCL Nationals, one of five games in July 2017 and a second one of four games in September 2017 before injuring his hamstring and finally being shut down for the season. In those nine games in the GCL, he went 8-for-25 (.320) with a double, a triple, and four RBIs. He finished the 2017 season with a batting average of .351, three home runs, and 18 RBIs.

Soto entered 2018 as one of the minor leagues' top prospects. He started the season with Hagerstown, hitting .373 in 16 games with five home runs and 24 RBIs, before being promoted in late April to the Potomac Nationals in the Class A-Advanced Carolina League. After 15 games with Potomac, in which he hit .371 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs, he was promoted in mid-May to the Harrisburg Senators in the Double-A Eastern League. He had appeared in eight games for the Senators, going 10-for-31 (.323) with two doubles, two home runs, and 10 RBIs. On May 20, the Nationals called him up to the major leagues for the first time to reinforce their outfield after an injury to second baseman and outfielder Howie Kendrick.

Washington Nationals (2018–2022)

2018 season: Rookie season

Soto made his major-league debut on May 20, 2018, becoming the youngest player in the major leagues at 19 years, 207 days and the first player born in 1998 to appear in a major-league game. He came on as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nationals Park and struck out swinging against right-handed reliever Erik Goeddel.

Soto made his first major-league start the next day, playing left field in a game against the San Diego Padres at Nationals Park, and on the first pitch of his first plate appearance of the game, got his first major-league hit, a 422 ft (129 m) opposite-field three-run homer off Robbie Erlin. After rounding the bases and returning to the dugout, Soto stepped back out for a curtain call from the crowd. He became the youngest player in franchise history to hit a home run and the first teenager to homer in a major-league game since teammate Bryce Harper did it at age 19 in 2012. "He's a special player," Harper said of Soto after the game. Soto became the youngest major league player since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989 to be intentionally walked in a game when Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter elected to do so rather than give him an opportunity to drive in a run on May 29.

In June, shortly after Soto was called up to the major leagues, Baseball America listed him as the Nationals' top prospect, overtaking fellow outfielder Víctor Robles, and the fourth-best overall prospect in baseball. Soto contributed to a notable oddity when he hit a home run against the New York Yankees on June 18. The contest began on May 15, five days before Soto made his major league debut, but was suspended until June 18 due to inclement weather with the score at 3–3. Since the stoppage occurred at the end of the fifth inning, a team would have been awarded the win if they were ahead, which implied that he had technically hit a home run before his MLB debut. To prevent confusion, it was added in sequence to his already accrued home run total as his sixth home run. It was also one of three home runs Soto hit in his first five plate appearances against the Yankees.

On June 21, he started as the cleanup hitter for the first time in the major leagues, against the Baltimore Orioles. He doubled home the winning run in a 4–2 victory. Soto's first multi-home run game came on June 13 against the Yankees, and he repeated the feat on June 29, at Citizens Bank Park against the Philadelphia Phillies, tallying two home runs, four hits, and five RBIs as the Nationals defeated the Phillies 17–7. Soto had another multi-home run game against the Phillies on September 11, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs in the second game of a doubleheader. On September 16, Soto became the youngest player to steal 3 bases in a game, breaking Rickey Henderson's mark of 20 years, 241 days by accomplishing the feat at 19 years, 326 days.

In 2018, Soto slashed .292/.406/.517 with 79 walks, 22 home runs, and 70 RBIs in 494 plate appearances and was the youngest player in the NL. He was named the NL Rookie of the Month in June, July, and September, becoming the sixth player to win the award 3 or more times. Soto set many MLB teenage records during the season, including the most walks by a teenager (79), most multi-homer games by a teenager (3), highest OBP by a teenager (.406), and highest OPS by a teenager (.923). His 22 homers tied him with then-teammate Bryce Harper for 2nd most home runs by a teenager and he became the only teenager to walk more than 60 times in a season and post an OBP over .400. He finished second in voting for NL Rookie of the Year to Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., becoming the only 3-time Rookie of the Month winner to not win the Rookie of the Year award.

After the season, Soto was selected to the MLB All-Star Team for the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.

2019 season: World Series champion

On August 19, 2019, Soto became only the fourth player in MLB history to record 100 extra-base hits before his 21st birthday, joining Mel Ott, Tony Conigliaro, and his former teammate, Bryce Harper. He later became the seventh MLB player in history to reach 30 home runs before their 21st birthday. In 2019, he batted .282/.401/.548 with 110 runs (7th), 108 walks (3rd), 34 home runs, and 110 RBIs (9th) and he stole 12 bases in 13 attempts.

With the Nationals trailing the Milwaukee Brewers 3–1 in the bottom of the eighth during the NL Wild Card Game, Soto hit a bases-clearing single off Brewers closer Josh Hader to give the Nationals a 4–3 lead. They would later hang on to the lead and advance to the National League Division Series.

In Game 3 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Soto hit his first career postseason home run off Hyun-jin Ryu. In the decisive Game 5 of the NLDS, Soto hit an RBI single in the 6th inning off Walker Buehler and later hit a game-tying home run in the top of the 8th off Clayton Kershaw. The Nationals would go on to win in 10 innings and eliminate the Dodgers, advancing to the National League Championship Series for the first time in franchise history. Soto went 3–16 (.188) with a double and an RBI in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Nationals advanced to the World Series after sweeping the best-of-seven series.