Two things are true about Juan Soto’s start with the NY Mets after 20 games

Nobody will live under a tighter microscope in New York sports than Juan Soto. Leaving the New York Yankees for the New York Mets made it a large enough story. Tack on 765 million more reasons with his record-breaking contract and it’s no surprise why he’s going to be an everyday talking point among sports fans.

It only took 18 games before Mets “fans” began to turn. Boos this past Thursday following a three strikeout game to finish off the team’s road trip were unleashed on Soto. How honest those boos were is up for debate. Yankees fans who couldn’t make it down to Tampa to see their team play might’ve just as easily climbed the fences. Some of the usual suspected trolls surely had nothing better to do than to jeer him because he isn’t batting 1.000 with 30 home runs yet.

Through 20 games, there are two truths about the Soto tenure.

Juan Soto has been far from brutal

Whatever statistics you want to cite, this could be going far worse. His RBI single after two hitless at-bats on Friday broke a Citi Field seal. Soto had been coming up with RBI opportunities and falling short. He’s hardly alone. It’s a contagion with Mets hitters.

Soto is 16 for 71 to begin his Mets tenure with a .225/.368/.408 slash line overall. The kind of batting average you’d waste an entire trash bag to get rid of, the rest of his numbers aren’t so terrible. We could use more home runs. The walks have been plentiful enough. His .776 OPS is second on the team to Pete Alonso. He leads the team with 14 runs scored, adding to the importance of each time he has gotten on base.

Anyone can cherry pick from Soto’s numbers and make it look better or worse than it actually is. The truth is, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as some make it out to be.

This isn’t what Steve Cohen paid for

How’s Steve Cohen feeling? He’s the one out $765 million bucks. Has his prized free agent signing come close to meeting expectations?

Publicly, Cohen has been a good baseball fan. He has stayed level headed for the most part. Firing off the occasional tweet, something he seemed to stop doing from a negative standpoint after the 2021 season, is about all we get to know regarding his baseball opinions. The baseball fan in him realizes this is only a fraction of the games Soto will play for the Mets. What does his inner day trader think?

Expecting Soto to be a $765 million player is irrational. He’s not going to win an MVP every year. He might not win one at all. Nor will the Mets make the playoffs in each season of his deal. This isn’t what Steve Cohen paid for. But how often does a player’s contract directly match the output?

Both are true. Things could be going much worse for Soto. He’s also nowhere near meeting his contract value. Achieving the latter would require impossible results.