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Juan Soto went 1-10 over the weekend as his New York Mets lost two out of three games to their cross-town rivals and Soto's former team, the New York Yankees.
But the two losses and a few rough games from Soto may be the least of the Mets' concerns. Bob Klapisch of NJ.com reported on Monday that the team is “concerned about Soto’s lack of enthusiasm for his new team.”
Soto signed with the Mets over the winter in a monstrous 15-year, $765 million deal after spending one season in the Bronx. It's still May of year 1 in Queens for Soto, so all concerns should be taken with a grain of salt, but as Klapisch notes, the optics are not promising.
First, Soto agreed to an in-game interview with ESPN on Sunday, only to back out at the last minute and hand the assignment to Brandon Nimmo. Soto reportedly told Mets officials that he was tired of answering questions about Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and why he chose the Mets rather than returning to the Yankees. Then, Soto snubbed clubhouse reporters after the game, saying he would return to answer questions after saying hello to a family member. He never returned to the clubhouse.
“That’s not the same stand-up guy who was always at his locker last season,” Klapisch wrote. “Even after being skewered on Friday, Soto spoke of the obligation to ‘take it like a man.' Two days later, he was running for the exit.”
“The only time Soto seemed happy this weekend was while he interacted with Judge, Aaron Boone, and Jazz Chisholm during batting practice,” he added.
Yankees fans have a warm welcome for Mets OF Juan Soto
Not that there was any doubt before, but any questions about how Yankees fans would greet Soto in his first trip to Yankee Stadium as a Met were put to bed quickly on Friday — and reinforced all weekend long.
He was booed mercilessly, with fans in right field turning their back to him as he took his position in the outfield. The chants were hardly G-rated, either, and they were eerily similar to the treatment Jose Altuve gets when the Houston Astros come to town.
As some extra salt in the wound, Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger, who hit a grand slam in the eighth inning, were the ones to carry the Yankees to victory Sunday. At minimum, Fried and Bellinger would almost certainly be on different teams had they not been the Yankees' plan B to re-sign Soto.
