The Soto Era Begins

Morning Dose: Monday, February 17

☀️ Good Morning:

Juan Soto is officially in camp as a New York Met. Sure, we’d already seen him wearing the jersey over dress pants at his introductory press conference. And we all saw countless mock-ups looking like he was playing in a Mets uniform (by taking old action shots and transposing a Mets uniform via Photo Shop or AI).

But it somehow just hits different when you see the guy taking batting practice in the blue and orange.

According to Anthony DiComo, Soto parked one “about four-fifths of the way up the batter's eye in straightaway center.” The rightfielder seemed to fit right in with the rest of the club yesterday, with photos showing him talking with Brandon Nimmo and Jesse Winker, manager Carlos Mendoza, and a crew led by Jose Siri and Luisangel Acuna.

If you were forced to manufacture a concern before signing a guy like Soto, you might wonder if a superstar like that would stay on his own island, and not mix well with the team. When the Mets refused to sign Alex Rodriguez after the 2000 season, then-GM Steve Phillips justified it by saying he didn’t want a “24-plus-1 situation,” due to A-Rod having his own aura (and demands).

Well, based on the early images coming out of camp and his remarks on Sunday (more on that in a minute), that doesn’t appear to be the case here at all.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!

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If Soto proves to be a clubhouse leader on top of the expected all-time great production, the Mets could find themselves with a “good” problem to have off the field.

Over the weekend, Francisco Lindor made a little bit of news suggesting he’d love to be the team captain. In response to a reporter’s question about it, the MVP runner-up gave a 2 minute and 13 second answer, including:

It’s pretty hard to argue with the idea of Lindor as captain of the franchise — he plays everyday, leads the team in the clubhouse, and obviously is an offensive and defensive beast.

But would it be odd to have a player in Soto who you just gave the biggest contract in sports history, and signed through 2039, and not have him be your captain?

There are bigger things to worry about, of course. And maybe the answer is co-captains. But it will be interesting to see how the front office handles this one.

For his part, Soto said all the right things in his first Q&A with reporters since entering camp, which we discuss next.