Making history is nothing new for Juan Soto — but this type of history certainly is.
In August, the Mets slugger hit 10 home runs, stole 11 bases and walked 27 times in 28 games.
That made Soto the first player in MLB history to record at least 10 homers, 10 steals and 25 walks in a single month, according to Opta Stats.
It’s a remarkable feat in its own right, but it becomes even more incredible when considering stolen bases were never a significant part of Soto’s game before this season.
Soto boasts a career-high 26 steals this year, more than doubling his previous best of 12, which he set in 2019 and matched in 2023.
When he got thrown out during Monday afternoon’s 10-8 win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, it was only the second time all season that Soto had been caught stealing.
His September is off to a strong start, too, as Soto hit a grand slam and a two-run triple in Monday’s victory and finished 2-for-3 with two walks and six RBI.
“It’s a show,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after Monday’s game. “Every time he’s at the plate, you want to watch it. It’s pretty special and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
It’s been a roller-coaster year for Soto in the first season of his record-setting 15-year, $765 million contract, but his overall statistics are once again excellent.
Soto is hitting .257 with 36 home runs, 90 RBI, a .915 OPS, an MLB-best 113 walks and those 26 stolen bases in 28 attempts.
He is the fourth player in MLB history to record at least 35 homers, 25 steals and 110 walks in a season, according to MLB.com stat guru Sarah Langs, and the first since 1999.
Barry Bonds totaled those numbers four times (1993 and 1996-98), while Jeff Bagwell did it twice (1997 and 1999) and Chipper Jones did it in 1999.
“It’s allowing me to do damage, to help the team,” Soto, 26, told SNY of how he’s seeing the ball right now. “If it’s taking a walk, or any kind of way I can do it, it feels really good.”
This is Soto’s third season with at least 35 homers and his fifth with at least 110 walks.
His year has been unusual in the sense that Soto had an OPS of 1.196 in June — when he was the National League Player of the Month — and 1.009 in August, but in each of the other three months, his OPS was below .800.
A slow start contributed to Soto being left off of the NL All-Star team in a surprising snub.
Still, Soto is on pace for 42 home runs, which would break the career high of 41 that he set last season with the Yankees.
And he’s managed to incorporate the baserunning element despite a sprint speed that ranks in the bottom-15th percentile of MLB players, according to Baseball Savant.
Soto’s 2.0 BsR — an all-encompassing baserunning metric by FanGraphs — is also career best. Soto had a -3.9 BsR last year and had not posted a positive one since 2019.
“I know that was something that [Soto has been working on] from the beginning with Antoan,” Mendoza said in May, referring to first base coach Antoan Richardson.
“Becoming a better baserunner overall. Not necessarily a base-stealer, but a baserunner, and we’ve seen that at times.”
