Juan Soto’s ups and downs in his first season as a Met are not uncharted territory — Francisco Lindor didn’t come to New York in 2021 firing on all cylinders either.
Across Lindor’s 11-year career, he was never less effective than he was in his first season with the Mets after six seasons in Cleveland with four All-Star appearances.
In his first New York season after a blockbuster trade and signing a $341 million contract, Lindor had career lows in every category of his slash line at .230/.322/.412.
While Soto’s .247/.388/.455 slash line this season isn’t as low as Lindor’s from 2021, it is a decent drop-off from Soto’s career year with the Yankees in 2024.
The shortstop reflected on that season Monday on “The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman.”
“My first year, the reason why it was so tough for me — I was trying to hug more than I could hug. I wanted to do so much more than I could have,” Lindor said. “It wasn’t until I learned the organization, the culture, until I went through a lot of ups and downs, that I realized, you know what? If I take care of my job, and my job is to play shortstop for the New York Mets, a lot of other things are gonna get solved.”
Lindor credited the organization, the Cohen family in particular, for helping him through the process while encouraging him to “do your thing.”
But Lindor also credited something unusual for his success in battling through the struggles.
“One of the biggest blessings to me that year was that I ended up in the IL,” he said. “That helped me to slow things down. Things were a little fast for me and that helped me slow things down and see things from the outside.”
So while fans will hope Soto doesn’t have to suffer an injury like Lindor did to play up to his $765 million contract, it could be beneficial knowing that Soto has a teammate who has been in his shoes before.
As far as Lindor sees it, though, his superstar teammate has been climbing positively all season.
“When it comes to Soto, yeah, for some of the fans, he looked like he was struggling, but the numbers were good, the expected numbers, which is something that a lot of front offices look into,” Lindor said. “Credit to him … he still looks like the same person — he didn’t ride the wave of being bad or the wave of being good, he stayed the course.
“For such a young player with a lot on his plate, he has handled himself extremely well … I believe he’s going to end up being an all-star, and he’s gonna have a fantastic year. It’s gonna help us win and continue to help us to win a lot of games.”