Punxsutawney Phil, you’ve been overshadowed this year: the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is the true harbinger of spring. The WBC is professional baseball’s version of soccer’s World Cup, where 20 star-studded international superteams compete against each other once every four years. This event creates an electric atmosphere in early March that melts the final traces of winter just in time for Major League Baseball’s opening day.
Whether you live for the juice of the tournament or condemn the disruption to the flow of regular MLB preparation, the WBC nevertheless offers a sneak-peek at some of the most sensational players. For Mets fans (and all of you salty Yankees fans), the spotlight has shone on the Dominican Republic’s Juan Soto as we eagerly anticipate his sophomore Mets season.
Soto showed up to the tournament hungry and, unsurprisingly, flooded social media with a barrage of highlight-reel moments as a result. Soto wreaked havoc on the DR’s opponents, most notably by launching a 2-run walk-off home run for a mercy rule win over the Netherlands, opening the game against Venezuela with a 409 foot 2-run blast to center field, and flashing unexpected hustle with a head-turning slide at home plate versus Korea in the quarterfinals.
Soto remained in the center of the spotlight when the Dominican Republic’s run was cut short by a semifinal loss to Team USA. Soto was caught looking at a controversial third strike during a critical at-bat in the bottom of the eighth. Despite a lackluster performance, Soto faced the media with confidence, claiming, “We showed the world who’s the best team in baseball.”
The pressures of elite level play are not new for Soto. His story begins in Herrera, DR, a neighborhood just west of Santo Domingo, where baseball is not merely a pastime, but also a language, livelihood, and, for many, a path towards a better life. His father, Juan Soto Sr., dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. Those dreams never materialized, but he passed the baton on to Soto Jr. Quickly recognized for his careful eye and discipline at the plate, Soto rose to No. 22 on the MLB’s international prospect list in 2015. In July of that year, Soto inked a rookie contract with the Washington Nationals accompanied by a handsome $1.5 million signing bonus.
While his peers were settling into college classrooms, Soto was stepping into major league stadiums and putting together a season that turned heads. Batting .292 with 22 home runs and 70 runs batted in, his freshman performance earned him a second-place finish in the 2018 National League Rookie of the Year race behind Atlanta Brave Ronald Acuña Jr. Since then, Soto has not slowed down. His outstanding career so far boasts four All-Star selections, six Silver Sluggers awards, and two dominant World Series appearances. Soto was also one of the quickest players to reach 100 career home runs and continues to be a constant presence atop the league’s on-base percentage leaderboard.
The New York Mets rewarded Soto’s remarkable resume in December of 2025 with a record-breaking 15 year, $765 million deal – the largest contract in professional sports history. This massive payout of course comes with weighty expectations from the Flushing Faithful. Despite a slow start to his first season in Queens, Soto finished the year third in National League MVP voting with 43 moonshots, 105 RBIs, 38 stolen bases, and an OPS of .921.
With $51 million on the books this season, it’s no surprise that Mets fans are carefully scrutinizing Soto’s WBC performance. Over the course of the tournament, Soto slashed .261/.393/.522 in 23 at-bats with 5 strikeouts, 5 walks, and 1 stolen base. He also committed one fielding error in left field.
While six games in early March pale in comparison to the physical and mental demands of a 162+ game season, here is what we can extrapolate about his performance:
- Soto’s offensive power is already in mid-season form. His two towering home runs should calm any anxieties regarding Soto’s ability to turn on the ball. A batting average of .261 is mildly more concerning, but a handful of plate appearances before Opening Day is not representative of the season’s routine. Five walks suggests that Soto’s keen eye is as sharp as ever.
- Soto’s defense continues to leave something to be desired. The viral fielding error against Nicaragua in the first game of pool play was hard to ignore. However, reports claim Soto has been working on outfield reads and approaches in the offseason. Also, the Mets are shifting him back to his natural position in left field after a stint in right field last season. As he reclaims his corner, Soto’s defensive woes should largely abate.
- The energy Soto brought to the DR squad is highly encouraging. His focus on competing at an elite level was evident throughout this tournament and reflected in his tremendous hustle on the field. Soto will build off of this momentum when he officially dons the Orange and Blue again in a few days to start his ninth season with a full head of steam.
Mets fans, shake off those offseason scaries: Juan Soto is here to play. Ya gotta believe!
