Juan Soto has given the NY Mets his most Juan Soto season (minus the injuries)

There hasn’t been a whole lot of diving into the kind of year Juan Soto has had for the New York Mets because that’s a freckle on the back of what has happened this year. Missing in action for such a large portion with two separate injuries, he has still managed to play in 84 games and put together the most Soto-ian campaign we could have predicted.

Slashing .283/.408/.539, he’s right there with his career .282/.416/.532. The power up slightly, the walks down a little bit, what we’ve witnessed from Soto in 2026 is no debate. This is who he is and that’s not all.

If you just want to look at OPS, Soto’s .947 this year is one point shy of his career .948. He was even on pace to hit around (or more) the same number of home runs (36 per 162 games) and drive in something similar (103 RBI per 162 games). At 21 and 52, we’ve gotten something closer to the version of Soto the Mets signed up for.

Where has Juan Soto gotten worse or better?

Not every stat lines up well with career averages. His 7 stolen bases in 84 games actually does, though. He has averaged 14 per 162 games. His insane 38 swiped bags in 2025 may forever be an outlier. Thank you, Antoan Richardson.

Soto has cut down on his strikeouts this year. His 13.4% K rate is a new career low. His 19.2% in 2025 was close to his previous high. For his career he is at 17.1%.

Of note, Soto found a way to hit the ball in the air a lot more often in 2026. His 34.8% fly ball rate is well above the 25.5% in his career. While it seems to have limited his doubles, it hasn’t hurt him in any other areas and may have led to a few more balls finding a fan than an outfield wall.

Soto’s All-Star season with the Mets in 2026 was, somewhat oddly, more appreciated than the monster campaign he had in 2025. It’s definitely different and maybe because we’re relating it to teammates underperforming greatly, his typical Soto season in 2026 does feel better. A 20-point difference in batting average from .263 to .283 deceptively makes it look better even when everything else is right around the same. With only 12 more points in his OBP and another 14 in the slugging percentage, fans were robbed of a very “average” Soto season which is MVP caliber.

With Soto, you either appreciate what he does or you don’t. Although the clutch moments haven’t been there in abundance, there should be little doubt that at the end of every season he's going to have some fat stand-out stats.

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