Juan Soto has a .415 on-base percentage and .531 slugging percentage in his 8+ MLB seasons. With back-to-back 40-home run seasons in the last two years, the New York Mets star remains a formidable threat at the plate. For years, his production has sparked comparisons with one of the greatest hitters in the sport. One analyst, however, has had enough of the comparison and believes that Soto’s reputation has gone too far.
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“If I hear again that this guy is Ted Williams, I’m gonna vomit,” Joe Benigno ranted in a recent WFAN podcast.
Juan Soto made his MLB debut in 2018 with the Washington Nationals. He won the World Series with them the very next year. Then, it was in 2020 that he erupted with the bat.
Soto had a .351 batting average, and since then, he has played for four different teams but has never failed to win the Silver Slugger Award in the last six years. And Benigno isn’t trying to deny his hitting abilities.
He is simply questioning Soto’s standing when it comes to delivering in serious situations.
He called the slugger “overrated” and said, “I’d rather see Francisco Lindor up in a big spot than Juan Soto.”
To top that, the sports radio personality claimed that Soto never hits big.
The 27-year-old has 25 home runs in 99 games this season. He also has 10 doubles and two triples. The young Met has recorded 61 RBIs and 71 walks so far.
Soto’s hitting and walk rates have been impressive since his tenure with the Nats. Back in 2021, Jayson Stark compared him to Ted Williams in his Athletic article.
“Yes, Juan Soto at 22 just might be Ted Williams,” he stated.
But he wasn’t alone.
At the end of 2021, MLB made the same comparison, and it didn’t take the fans too long to follow suit.
Comparisons between Juan Soto and Ted Williams focus almost entirely on their elite plate discipline, exceptional walk rates, and advanced hitting maturity at a very young age.
Per The Athletic‘s 2021 article, through their age-21 seasons, they have almost the same number of big-league plate appearances (1,349 for Soto, 1,338 for Williams). And there are only 37 hitters who have made more than 1300 plate appearances by that age.
At age 21, Soto’s walk percentage stood at 16.9%, while Williams was at 15.2%. Not just that.
Through that same age, Williams had 157 wRC+, while Soto had it at 152.
But Soto has been on the other side of the conversation since last year.
The Mets had a great start in 2025, winning 45 of their first 79 games, but they blew their chances of a postseason berth by dropping 55 of their final 93 games. And the fact that Soto was hitting clutch amid their struggles drew some significant backlash.
While his numbers were still elite, he couldn’t help the team get out of the slump.
And the struggles have continued this season.
They have been in the bottom half of the NL East for most of the season, and they have missed another playoff opportunity this year. That’s why Benigno also criticized the front office for not re-signing Pete Alonso, who has been hitting well for the Baltimore Orioles now.
In fact, he just reached the 300-HR milestone in his career, hitting a home run against his former team.
While the Mets fans showered their former hero with love and respect, the Mets dropped another game on Tuesday night. Although Juan Soto went 2-for-5, recording an RBI, he did little to suppress the noise, as his team is again out of playoff contention.