NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The New York Mets pulled off the move of the offseason so far with the addition of Juan Soto. Now they have to figure out who he will protect in the lineup. This makes the Mets arguably the best offense in MLB, even ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers and their World Series-winning core.
Last season, they dealt with a ton of injuries and inconsistent play early on. However, the Mets rebounded to make one heck of a run and advanced to the NLCS, where they were defeated by the Dodgers 4 games to 2. But 2025 is a new season, and with Soto onboard, many are expecting the Mets to be back in that position.
Offensively, Soto makes the Mets far more dangerous than the New York Yankees were even with the duo of Aaron Judge and Soto. The Yankees clobbered 237 Home runs compared to 207 by the Mets. The Yankees scored 815 Runs compared to 768 by the Mets. Not a far gap but big enough that Soto’s departure from the Bronx will cause havoc and his arrival in Queens will draw optimism.
Judge is the best HR hitter the league has. He hit 58 last season to lead the league and the Mets highest total was Pete Alonso with 34. Now comes the fun part for manager Carlos Mendoza. He has to figure out where to put Soto in the lineup.
For the Yankees, Aaron Boone placed Soto in front of Judge in the 2nd spot right behind the leadoff hitter. It was a gamble of sorts and the Yankees did have trouble generating runs from the bottom half of the order.
In Queens, Soto will not be a leadoff hitter. The clear choice there would be to continue to have Francisco Lindor in that spot. As with the Yankees, Soto may bat 2nd with Alonso 3rd but why go that route?
Alonso, if resigned should be 3rd with Brandon Nimmo hitting 2nd then you can place Soto 4th behind Alonso. After that, fill out the rest of the lineup to match pitching rotations. But those 4 bats to start the game are way better than what Soto had with the Yankees.
But this all comes down to the New York Mets doing the right thing and finding a way to resign Alonso. He’s the key here. The Mets had an incredible run last season so why let that fall at the waistline after adding such a polarizing player?
As it stands now, if the Mets do resign Alsonso, they will head into the 2025 season as the best offense in the National League and probably all of baseball. While the second half of the order has been an issue for most teams, the Mets’ bottom half came alive towards the end of the season and the postseason. This is a plus for them moving forward. Soto is a good player but in this lineup, he has more weapons than he had at any point in his career.
2025 could not only be a big season for Juan Soto but for the New York Mets as well.
