It’s one thing for Juan Soto’s numbers to be substandard in mid-May. It’s another for him to not bust it out of the box after signing the biggest contract in sports history.
The Mets’ $765 million man got under fans’ skin during Sunday night’s nationally televised Subway Series loss to the Yankees in The Bronx when he did not hustle out of the box in the eighth inning on a ground ball to second base.
With the game tied 2-2, Soto led off the inning against Yankees reliever Devin Williams and sent a 1-1 pitch up the middle, forcing second baseman DJ LeMahieu into a tough sliding grab to his right.
By the time LeMahieu secured the ball on the grass just beyond the infield dirt, Soto was not yet halfway down the first base line, only putting his head down and kicking it up another gear once LeMahieu had the ball.
The Mets went down in order in the eighth before the Yankees’ six-run barrage in the bottom half, capped by Cody Bellinger’s grand slam, to take the rubber game.
Soto drew ire on social media for not busting out of the box.
“Juan Soto obviously should have hustled here. Not sure what he was thinking,” Ben Yoel wrote on X.
“How the f–k do you not hustle here? Thats terrible,” Jomboy’s Jack Oliver wrote.
“Soto is playing so lackadaisically right now and I don’t get it. No shuffle. No intensity. Jogging out of the box in the 8th inning of a tie game, laughing with the Yankees players etc.,” Mets Avenue wrote.
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“Why did juan soto not hustle there my god,” X user @krissyy_elyse wrote.
“Soto’s hustle has been absolutely horrible this weekend,” wrote @MaddlxDJ64.
Soto was loudly booed by Yankees fans throughout the weekend after he spent one season with them and led them to a World Series appearance.
The 26-year-old went 1-for-10 with four walks, three strikeouts, two steals and two runs in the three-game Subway Series.
Through 46 games this season, Soto is hitting .246 with an .822 OPS, eight home runs, 20 RBIs, 37 walks, 33 strikeouts, nine doubles and 33 runs.
Last year for the Yankees, Soto hit .288 with a .989 OPS and smashed a career-high 41 homers with 109 RBIs.