Juan Soto is already looking past another lost Mets season, and he’s making his expectations clear: the front office needs to be aggressive this winter.
The Mets are wrapping up their second straight year without a postseason berth since signing Soto to his record-setting $765 million deal, and the star outfielder doesn’t want that stretch to drag into a third season. Speaking with Mike Puma of the New York Post on Thursday in Texas, Soto urged the team to load up however it can.
“We should go and get as much as we can,” Soto told Puma. “We need as much help as we can get. It was a real tough year for us, so I think we have got to go out there and grab as much as we can.”
That message lands with a winter ahead that could give the Mets multiple paths to improve. One of the biggest possibilities would be a run at Tarik Skubal, another Scott Boras client, if New York enters that free-agent chase. Beyond Skubal, though, this class is widely viewed as thin, which makes every starting pitcher, reliever and position player worth considering all the more important for a team with owner Steve Cohen’s financial power.
The Mets can also work the trade market. After their deadline sell-off, president of baseball operations David Stearns now has more prospect capital to use in talks, giving the club another route to patch holes and deepen the roster.
That matters because the foundation is still there. The Mets finished 73-86, but they also have a young core and several stars in place, which means the gap to contention may not be as wide as the record says.
If their young players - including Carson Benge, Nolan McLean and A.J. Ewing - keep moving forward, and if the veterans stay healthier next season, the picture could look very different.
Soto’s own year was interrupted by injuries. He landed on the injured list twice, both times with a calf strain. Francisco Lindor also missed a significant stretch with a calf injury.
When Soto was on the field, the production looked familiar. Entering Thursday’s loss to the Rangers, he was batting .274 with a .915 OPS and 27 home runs in 108 games.
“It’s definitely not what I imagined in my head,” Soto said. “There is nothing I can do other than blame myself.
I have got to be better. I have got to be at the level to take us forward.”
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