San Diego Padres star Juan Soto has struggled ever since he was traded to the Padres last season. Many people around the MLB world felt that Soto would bounce back with a fresh start in 2023, but that hasn't been the case. Soto receives plenty of help from MLB coaches and teammates, but he most recently received potentially game-changing advice from an unlikely source; his little league baseball coach Rafael Zapata, per Hector Gomez.

“He's opening up too much and is around the ball right now,” Zapata said. “That’s not the Soto I trained because he is right now hitting with a stance that’s too open and he is not going to hit the ball hard even if his soft thrown to him.”

Soto, 24, is considered to be one of the best hitters in baseball. However, his placement among the game's most talented hitters has dwindled amid his current slump. Soto currently owns a lackluster .183/.345/.344 slash line with a .689 OPS and four home runs. He's still getting on base at a decent clip, but Juan Soto is struggling to record hits without question.

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He's been vocal about his frustrations with the new MLB pitch clock. Perhaps that is a factor in his lowly numbers on the season. Additionally, some experts around the league believe Soto has been too passive at the plate, often trying to work walks instead of being aggressive. However, maybe it is just a mechanical concern like Zapata stated. If Soto is “opening up too much,” like Zapata said, that wouldn't be too difficult of a problem to fix.

It will be interesting to see if Juan Soto takes his former little league coach's advice.