Juan Soto Just Had a Game Where He Basically Refused to Swing

Listen, I'm fully aware that in the last week or so I've made two different videos on Juan Soto, but in my opinion they were on separate, interesting aspects of his performance, with the first one being concerned with potentially his weakest throw ever, and the second one being on his lack of hustle during the last game of the New York series. And while there has been other little mini-narratives swirling since, I didn't want to keep throwing fuel on the fire, consistently dunking on him or something. But he just registered a contest that I absolutely have to talk about, because it was one of the weirder things I've seen this season on a major league field. Facing Garry Kroshe in the first inning with the runner on second, Juan began his day by taking a cutter over the low and outside corner, a pitch he certainly didn't seem to like, but was a strike. Kroshe followed this with a sinker that was solid in the zone at 97, a pitch you'll see a lot of guys do damage on, was on the 0-2 that our first real questionable decision was made, when he took this cutter right down the middle of the plate. He was back up in the third inning, this time with nobody on, and immediately got off to a better start by taking a cutter inside. Kroshe followed this with a sweeper that got a cold strike at the bottom of the zone. This brings us to our second eyebrow-raising moment, when on the 1-1, he again took a cutter nearly right down the center of the plate, a little bit low, but certainly another pitch you'll see him crushing at his best. One offering later, and he had been retired for the second straight time, being called out on a fastball, solidly in the zone. This means that, to this point, he had seen 7 pitches from Kroshe, and had offered at exactly 0 of them. Maybe this influenced his next at-bat a bit, as he was hacking away to lead off the 6th, grounding this poorly placed cutter weakly foul behind the plate. Then, for some reason, took another pitch in essentially the same spot, getting him down 0-2, before making it 3 straight at-bats with a strikeout by waving at a sweeper nowhere close. This just isn't the type of at-bat you're used to seeing from Juan Soto. His second-to-last A-B would come in the biggest moment he had been in so far, with the bases loaded and one out, and an opportunity to drive in an important insurance run. He wisely took the first pitch away for a ball before fouling off a sinker. On the 1-1, he would manage to put his only ball in play of the entire night, a deep drive to center field that managed to go for a sack fly. But in case you thought this new free-swinging Soto was going to take his last at-bat in the 9th inning, think again, as he would proceed to have a 6th pitch at-bat where he offered at exactly 0 of them. That made 3 plate appearances on the night where he had taken 0 swings. What's more, over the course of this game, he had taken 9 called strikes, which is just 1 off of his career high of 10s set back in 2018 versus the Braves. But there was one massive difference between this performance and that one. He did manage to hit a home run in his first at-bat of that night, helping to offset all of those taken strikes. Meanwhile, in this contest versus Boston, he only even managed to put the ball in play once, and while it was productive, it certainly wasn't anywhere near close to being as valuable as a home run. That's why I think I'd consider this the most passive game of his career to this point. Like I did with the last video, I want to end this with a declaration that I really hope he can turn this around sooner rather than later, as I personally want to see the same Hall of Fame level Soto that we have in years past for at least the next 5-10 years before we get into the twilight of that massive, record-breaking contract. Now thank you so much for watching, and I hope you enjoyed. Also, if you ever see something you'd like to see detailed in a Made the Cut video, whether that be a specific play or a narrative surrounding a certain player or team, feel free to reach out to my email basebpoet at gmail.com. That's B-A-S-E letter B P-O-E-T at gmail.com. If I used your idea, I'll be sure to give you credit. Have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you in the next one.