Juan Soto’s $765 m contract was the talk of the town, but his early struggles raised a lot of eyebrows. But now the scenarios have changed! He just hit his 27th homer. Soto is one of the few bright spots for the Mets this month. And with that, a savvy insider just put an end to all the “unhappy” talk.

And what a June it’s been. Juan Soto is hitting with a .325 average, 10 home runs, 20 runs scored, 20 walks, and a 1.238 OPS over 23 games. That performance put him on track to have the top single-month OPS in Mets history, not far behind Wayne Garrett’s record from 1970 and Mike Piazza’s masterpiece from July 2001.

Juan Soto’s June numbers speak for themselves! And so does Ken Rosenthal. In a recent candid conversation in the Foul Territory podcast, he sang high praises of Soto. He said, “There was all that noise around that he really wanted to play for the Yankees and not the Mets, and he was depressed. Well, if he’s really that depressed, I don’t think he’d be playing the way. He’s now. He is playing an extremely high-level.” Make sense, though. Thinking this was it? Oh, there’s more!

He further said, “he is everything Mets could hope for. He is going to make a lot of history and if he is so miserable boy, he plays pretty well.” An indirect dig at Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay.

Remember May? When Juan Soto stepped up to bat against his former team in the Bronx, he struggled to score runs. That time, Michael Kay said, “Why isn’t he happy?” And further exacerbated the reason for his unhappiness. He stated, “He wanted to return to the Yankees. That was his preference.” 

When he hit his 27th career multi-homer game, he made not one but two histories. Not only did he become the second Mets player in franchise history to hit 10 home runs and walk 20 times in a month. But he also surpassed Jimmie Foxx’s record of hitting the most multi-homers before the age of 27.

In the last game against the Pirates, Juan Soto was the only one to score, hitting a home run, but they lost 9-1. This June slump and the recent loss have exposed their struggles at the plate.

Queens in crisis: Mets’ June hitters go cold amid losing streak

This month, the Mets have registered a pitiful team batting average of .215, which has allowed their once-dominant offensive to come to a halt in the midst of a string of nine consecutive losses. They went from having the best record in baseball to having an 8–3 skid in their following 11 games, mostly due to their failures at the plate. This drop in record resulted from their failures at the plate.

Their problems with runners in scoring position are scary; they are 27th in MLB, hitting just .218 with RISP. This indicates that they can’t consistently capitalise on opportunities. In a recent loss, they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, which highlights the same problem persisting.

Mets batters also chase too much, with a team chase rate of about 30%, which is higher than the league average of 28%. The aggressive and imbalanced strategy that they have taken has caused their offense to suffer. As their veterans and their younger players have wasted at-bats.

The bottom half of the lineup has fallen apart, even if Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Starling Marte have all done well. The 4-8 hitters went 0-for-18 in one game not too long ago, which shows how unequal production is ruining rallies and leaving runners on base.