Juan Soto isn't letting the team down, but these 3 NY Mets players are

A lot of criticism has been going toward New York Mets’ outfielder Juan Soto, and a lot of it is unfounded. Some are saying he’s not showing enough enthusiasm because he backed out of being mic’d up during a game or not talking to the media during the recent Subway Series, likely because he was going to be asked the same questions about the Yankees and Aaron Judge that he’s been asked since the day he agreed to a contract with the Mets.

Some are also already calling Soto’s contract a bust and failing to live up to expectations. Sure, he may have signed the largest contract in professional sports history, but he’s done more than enough with the bat so far this season. Soto had a slow month of April but has a .893 OPS, .386 wOBA, and 151 wRC+, with nearly as many walks as strikeouts, with a 16:17 ratio. He’s above the 90th percentile of multiple important stats, such as xwOBA (.434), xSLG% (.585), xBA (.303), and exit velocity (94.3 MPH), while ranking in the 82nd percentile of barrel rate (14%).

But Soto is far from the biggest culprit in the Mets’ current struggles. He isn’t even letting the team down. There are far more, larger concerns than Soto right now. These three Mets players deserve the blame, not Soto.

1) Luisangel Acuna

Luisangel Acuna won NL Rookie of the Month for March and April after he hit .288/.342/.356 with a 102 wRC+ in 79 plate appearances. He drew a walk in 7.6% of his plate appearances but kept up a K% below 20% at 19.1%. Although his overall production wasn’t spectacular, he made up for it with good base running, going seven-for-eight in stolen base attempts and ranking above the 95th percentile of sprint speed. He also grades out as an above-average defensive second baseman.

However, May has given Acuna some real problems. He is batting a meager .233/.292/.256 with a .252 wOBA and 60 wRC+ in 49 plate appearances. His already low isolated slugging percentage has fallen to just .023, and he’s not even reaching base at a good enough rate to make his elite speed count. He has by far the lowest wRC+ of any Met in May with at least 40 plate appearances, trailing Pete Alonso, who still sits at 76. 

Acuna may have top-of-the-line speed and defense at second base, but a 60 wRC+ and a win percentage added (WPA) of -0.47 isn’t going to cut it. An OBP below .300 severely limits his value in terms of base running. He is making a way larger negative impact than Juan Soto not performing at a consensus MVP level.