Juan

Soto

Soto’s grand slam in the sixth inning was the exclamation mark in a lopsided victory to end the week. The $765 million man has been on an absolute tear, homering nine times in his past 15 contests. It’s a stretch in which Soto also has 16 runs scored, 18 RBI, and even four stolen bases. He’s at the height of his powers despite the offense not living up to expectations for most of the season. The Mets will begin a West Coast trip to Seattle and San Diego on Monday.

Things have not gone well for the Mets despite another tremendous season from Soto. His first inning home run gave them their first lead since last Friday, which they also got from a Soto first inning home run. Also, he was caught stealing for the second time this season in seven tries. For comparison, he was 38-for-42 as a base stealer last season. Even without carrying his newfound speed into this campaign, he has 12 home runs, a .301 batting average, and a .986 OPS through 39 games this season.

Soto homered as a DH in his third at-bat back from an illness that cost him two games. It’s his fifth homer in his last six games and seventh in his last 11. He had totaled four in 27 games through May 13.

Soto is back after missing two games due to illness. The Mets are batting him third again, behind Bo Bichette and ahead of A.J. Ewing. Fantasy managers should activate Soto in leagues with daily transactions.

Soto missed Sunday’s game while feeling under the weather, and the 27-year-old will get another day off Monday. Nick Morabito will patrol left field with Carson Benge operating as the designated hitter while Soto recovers.

The hot-hitting outfielder was feeling a bit under the weather on Sunday morning so the Mets decided to give him the day off to recover. It’s still possible that he could be used in a key spot off the bench later in the game if he’s up for it. Tyrone Taylor will start in his place in left field and bat eighth for the Mets against Tyler Phillips and the Marlins.

Soto was almost literally the only Mets’ hitter to make any noise in this game. In fact, there was a point in the eighth inning where the Marlins’ pitchers had just faced one batter over the minimum, and Soto had two hits. His solo home run stood as their only run and coming off a 99.8 mph fastball from Eury Pérez, it was the hardest pitch to be homered off of all season. That’s some solace, right?

On the eve of the anniversary of his first career home run, Soto chipped in two here against his original club. He hadn’t hit for a ton of power in the first few weeks after returning from his early season trip to the injured list, but now has five long balls over his past seven games. That gives him nine total on the season to go along with a .299 batting average and .951 OPS.

Morabito will get a breather after being involved in a couple collisions with the left-field walls at Nationals Park during his big-league debut on Tuesday night. He nearly made a spectacular catch to rob James Wood at the left-field wall, but it wound up glancing off his glove and going for an inside-the-park home run. He also made a phenomenal grab where he reached into the seats in foul territory while colliding with the low wall down the left-field line line. Did we mention that he was also hit by a pitch in the knee during that contest? There was a lot going on as Morabito finished 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts. It’ll be Juan Soto back in left field with A.J. Ewing in center field in this one.

Soto launched a 434-foot blast to right-center field in the seventh inning, but the Mets were unable to get any closer against the Nationals’ bullpen. The 27-year-old has hit safely in six straight games while going 10-for-24 (.417) with three home runs, six RBI, three steals, and seven runs scored. It’s almost like he’s one of the game’s elite hitters or something.