A few weeks before his Mets debut, Juan Soto shared a personal goal.
“I want a Gold Glove more than an MVP, to tell you the truth,” Soto said in Spanish last month on “Abriendo El Podcast,” explaining that winning an award for his defense would “close many doubts.”
His manager is taking notice.
“He’s not just saying it,” Carlos Mendoza said of Soto’s goal before Saturday’s home game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It’s the way he’s working, the way he’s going about his business, the details, looking for information, and behind the scenes with Antoan Richardson, our outfield coach, watching film and things like that.”
Soto, 26, is among baseball’s most accomplished and prolific hitters, but his defense in right field has been the subject of scrutiny during his eight-year MLB career.
He was a Gold Glove finalist with the Yankees last season, though advanced metrics such as fielding run value (which captures a player’s overall defensive performance) and outs above average (which rates a player’s range) suggest he was below average defensively.
Soto has shown improvements in both statistics this season, albeit in a small sample size.
Entering Saturday, Soto’s fielding run value of zero ranked slightly below average, while his zero outs above average (OAA) put him in the 68th percentile, according to MLB Statcast.
Soto has improved in both categories in each of the past four years.
In Friday’s home opener, Soto made a nice running catch in front of the wall after tracking a long fly ball off the bat of Anthony Santander.
“He’s got a good arm,” Mendoza said. “He gets good jumps. He’s saying [winning a Gold Glove is] one of his goals, and when you look at him and when you watch him preparing day in and day out toward that goal, it’s pretty impressive.”
Soto, who signed a record-setting 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets in the offseason, has also never won an MVP award, but he’s finished within the top 10 of voting five times.
MCNEIL LATEST
Jeff McNeil (right oblique strain) had been scheduled to take batting practice on the field Saturday, but rainy weather canceled those plans.
McNeil has been hitting indoors off of a pitching machine, but hitting on the field is the next step in his progression, Mendoza said.
“It’s different when you’re hitting off the [velocity] machine and you don’t see how far the ball goes,” Mendoza said. “Yeah, the TV can tell you it’s 370 [feet], but when there’s a level of intensity [you get] only by being outside. You get a better feel for it.”
The Mets want to see McNeil take batting practice on the field for a few days, and to possibly watch him hit outdoors against the velocity machine, before they schedule a rehab assignment.
McNeil, the 2022 National League batting champion who hit .238 last year, began the season on the injured list. The Mets have used Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuña at second base in his absence.
“So far, [McNeil is] feeling good, and we’ll see how it goes,” Mendoza said.
