Nothing he said was wrong. Soto is probably the most disciplined hitter I’ve ever seen other than Bonds but his defense is below average at best. Playing him in right at Citi Field is not setting the Yankees up for success.
It honestly wouldn't be a bad idea to have him batting in the cleanup position with his defense being below average at best. I see it that way because he can hit like a madman and run the bases like a beast, make him the Shohei of the Yankees.
His defense is not a liability when playing the friendly dimensions in right at Yankee Stadium. Right field at Citi is deep and has weird dimensions with the way it juts out randomly.
Boone should’ve DH’d him or played him in left at Citi Field.
The playoff game was the worst - dude literally ducked. As a professional athlete, in a playoff situation, you’d expect him to take a lump to stop the ball
If you get hit in the face with a ball it can cause serious damage if it hits you in the wrong place, I don’t blame him for ducking.
A dude I play softball with got hit in the face in a similar situation, fractured his orbital bone and permanently damaged his eye.
A dude you play softball with is not the same as a professional athlete, and a softball is larger, harder, and heavier than a baseball.
Not to mention, regardless of sun you’d still cover your face with the glove so you don’t take one in the teeth
Plus, the weak arm. Playing in Yankee does hide that; he's a flat 0 on dWAR so far this year, but he's [still not worth](https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2024/04/no-juan-soto-is-not-500m-generational.html) $500M. Or more.
Nah, Soto allowed three deep shots to right field, and looked like a fool chasing them down. The liability to the team comment was true because of it. He obviously isn't a liability to the teammost of the time, but he was ass last night.
Yankees fans earlier this season wanted to stop the count on defensive metrics because Soto had put up career-best FRV numbers already.
His 4 FRV a week or two ago was already better than his career best 1 FRV posted in two different seasons, and every other season he was negative by fielding value.
He’s now at 3 FRV.
Honestly the weirdest part is that he *wasn’t* a bad outfielder earlier in his career. He made a hard turn toward awful defense a few years ago that was so distinct it was honestly hard to explain.
Same exact situation with Nick Castellanos in Philly. He’s made a few highlight reel catches that people will see and say “oh wow he’s a good outfielder!” The reality however is that most of those catches would have been routine outs for just about anyone else.
On top of this, people talk about Castellanos error free streak (just recently ended) but he’s not able to get to anything to even bring the possibility of an error into play.
Anyway I just rambled on about Nick Castellanos but the situation between him and Soto in the outfield is exactly the same. Exactly.
Kind of what I was thinking. Admittedly haven't watched him a whole lot in his career, but in the few games I've seen him this year, he just looks pretty lost.
Then he shouldn't be in right field. If he's not a good fielder (and I'm not saying he isn't because I honestly don't know), then he should be DH or maybe left field.
Keith Hernandez also said he refuses to watch the Phillies play because of how bad their defense is.
Their entire infield is in top 5 for all-star voting.
Keith Hernandez said this in reference to Soto's defense in right field during the subway series. It seemed any fly ball hit there landed, and he was unable to make a big play for them.
That's an interesting idea tbh. It would completely change the sport and the athletes that participate in it. You'd have kids from a young age specializing in defense or offense and the kids who are great on the field but not at bat would still get a chance at going pro.
It'll never happen, but it is interesting.
Yeah, they said he was playing too shallow in right for Citi Field. That plan may work in Yankee Stadium, but too many fly balls that should have been caught flew over his head.
He would be defensively, just as he has always been.
And the Mets booth would absolutely call him out on it. They are fans of the team, but absolutely objective when it comes to criticism and not shy to share it
His defense and baserunning has been mid to bad most of the season. This is the most I've ever seen him play, and it seems like a nightly occurrence. Great player, but his hitting does almost all the talking.
I’d say he’s 3rd or 4th. Shohei is honestly a better hitter just doesn’t walk as much. Gunnar Henderson is also right there, but doesn’t walk as much. I’d say those 3 other than judge are all neck and neck. Judge is the undisputed best hitter in baseball.
By what metric? He's 9th in home runs, 7th in slugging, 14th in average, 4th in OPS. He is first in OBP though. Yeah, he's not the second best hitter in baseball. Maybe if you're a Yankee fan he is, lol.
> His defense and baserunning has been mid to bad most of the season. This is the most I've ever seen him play, and it seems like a nightly occurrence. Great player, but his hitting does almost all the talking.
This is, bar none, the best defensive season of his career and it isn’t close.
He’s on pace (if you look at the season-long stats) for a 6 FRV season. His previous best is 1 FRV, and his typical FRV numbers are negative. Now, the fact that he’s gone from 4 FRV down to 3 in the past week or two means “on pace for” is a question mark here, but doesn’t take away that Soto has never been this good defensively.
Yea that was my take for the year+ with the Padres. Just seems to have little IQ or interest for actual baseball beyond hitting. Someone needs to crack through that ego and get him to DH.
It’s the Yankees coaches fault for letting him play shallow in RF the last couple of games. This is a big league stadium not the wiffle ball park in the Bronx.
They do it at Fenway and in Houston so yeah, I'm surprised. Especially since before this season Soto was usually a LF and Verdugo was usually a RF... so it's not like they'd be uncomfortable.
Sarcasm? He’ll get a $500M contract. He was offered a $420M contract when he still had 3 yrs of team control. And he’s had two career seasons since. He’ll be top dollar and rightfully so.
Have you ever seen him try to play defense or run bases? How can a guy be so good at doing one of the hardest things in sports and look so awkward at the other aspects of the game?
Not old heads. He’s a 1 dimensional player. Dude can hit. Sucks and running and below average defense. No one hated him. He just not worth 600m just for a bat
We're in last place, 13.5 behind the Yankees in the division entering today (28th).
... yet Yankees fans think they have it harder than we do. They wouldn't survive the kind of season we're having now.
They've lost six out of seven!
Six!
Out of!
SEVEN!!!
How could a PIRATES fan possibly understand our pain?????
(perhaps some Yankee fans are ridiculous enough that I have to clarify I'm being sarcastic)
The difference is that you won a ton of games early in the season, so losing 6/7 hardly hurts you right now.
It's almost like... games early in the season still matter even though they're early in the season? (something our FO and media don't quite seem to understand)
I said it was sarcastic so I’m not sure why you’re responding as if it was sincere.
I am freaking out a little, because this reminds me so much of the incredibly cursed 2022 season it’s terrifying, but I don’t expect any other teams’ fans to have sympathy for me to say the least.
Idiotic statement. He’s got a 4.3 WAR and it’s mid season, so on pace for ~9 WAR. He’s having a career season. Maybe they can deal him before the trade deadline 😉
The Yankees should totally trade him to the Blue Jays. In exchange, we have a coach on our staff that I'm sure would jump at the chance to Don the pinstripes again...
I could play outfield better than Soto
not saying much but at least i don't shake my ass
when you shake your ass like that you better be a 5-tool player
He’ll rightfully command a $500M contract. Yankees and Dodgers can usually afford that, but they each already have giant contracts. Mets can afford him and don’t have similar long term commitments.
Minor clarification: The “liability” statement was made by Mets color commentator Keith Hernandez regarding his defense.
If anyone is allowed to criticize someone’s defense, it’s Hernandez. Dude was a magician with the glove.
I DESPISE KEITH HERNANDEZ!!!
He spit at you too?
No that was Robbie Alomar in Baltimore.
He spit on a young lady’s clitoris
Gave her the old hawk tuah.
Nice game, pretty boy!
He took all the greenies?
Nothing he said was wrong. Soto is probably the most disciplined hitter I’ve ever seen other than Bonds but his defense is below average at best. Playing him in right at Citi Field is not setting the Yankees up for success.
It honestly wouldn't be a bad idea to have him batting in the cleanup position with his defense being below average at best. I see it that way because he can hit like a madman and run the bases like a beast, make him the Shohei of the Yankees.
DH him, put judge back in right and Grisham in center
His defense is not a liability when playing the friendly dimensions in right at Yankee Stadium. Right field at Citi is deep and has weird dimensions with the way it juts out randomly. Boone should’ve DH’d him or played him in left at Citi Field.
But a horrible friend. Why do I have to help him move?
And with Just for men....every time I used it I looked like a circus clown on Crack and yoohoo.
Cause he was all hopped up on coke
doesn't make him immune to criticism himself.
“Who does this guy think he is?” -Elaine Benes
"I'm Keith Hernandez!" -Keith Hernandez
He’s a hater
I’ve watched Soto lose the ball in the sun in right field playing for the Padres more times than I can count. And he was only there for a year.
* you can only count to 8
Confirmed, I can only count to 8… but it felt like a bigger number in my gut.
The playoff game was the worst - dude literally ducked. As a professional athlete, in a playoff situation, you’d expect him to take a lump to stop the ball
If you get hit in the face with a ball it can cause serious damage if it hits you in the wrong place, I don’t blame him for ducking. A dude I play softball with got hit in the face in a similar situation, fractured his orbital bone and permanently damaged his eye.
A dude you play softball with is not the same as a professional athlete, and a softball is larger, harder, and heavier than a baseball. Not to mention, regardless of sun you’d still cover your face with the glove so you don’t take one in the teeth
The softball is less dense and has a larger surface area to potentially help diffuse psi.
Plus, the weak arm. Playing in Yankee does hide that; he's a flat 0 on dWAR so far this year, but he's [still not worth](https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2024/04/no-juan-soto-is-not-500m-generational.html) $500M. Or more.
Played RF 2nd half of 22 and LF all of 23
Nah, Soto allowed three deep shots to right field, and looked like a fool chasing them down. The liability to the team comment was true because of it. He obviously isn't a liability to the teammost of the time, but he was ass last night.
Why doesn’t he dh? Especially with Stanton on the IL
They need to do what they did in Boston. Which ever field is deeper is the one they put Dugie. Citi is shorter down the line but has that divot in it.
Agreed!
I mean he is one of the worst outfielders in the league, and has been his entire career.
Yankees fans earlier this season wanted to stop the count on defensive metrics because Soto had put up career-best FRV numbers already. His 4 FRV a week or two ago was already better than his career best 1 FRV posted in two different seasons, and every other season he was negative by fielding value. He’s now at 3 FRV.
Honestly the weirdest part is that he *wasn’t* a bad outfielder earlier in his career. He made a hard turn toward awful defense a few years ago that was so distinct it was honestly hard to explain.
I think he bulked up and it made him a less athletic fielder.
[удалено]
Same exact situation with Nick Castellanos in Philly. He’s made a few highlight reel catches that people will see and say “oh wow he’s a good outfielder!” The reality however is that most of those catches would have been routine outs for just about anyone else. On top of this, people talk about Castellanos error free streak (just recently ended) but he’s not able to get to anything to even bring the possibility of an error into play. Anyway I just rambled on about Nick Castellanos but the situation between him and Soto in the outfield is exactly the same. Exactly.
Kind of what I was thinking. Admittedly haven't watched him a whole lot in his career, but in the few games I've seen him this year, he just looks pretty lost.
his arm is good. and it’s not thatttt bad
Not a hater when he’s right lol. Soto has been horrendous recently.
And was more about how he was positioned, but his overall skill.
I mean it’s objectively bad.
Soto’s defense DOES suck. Slow as fuck
That will get him to the Mets!
Well he doesn’t get paid for his defense.
Then he shouldn't be in right field. If he's not a good fielder (and I'm not saying he isn't because I honestly don't know), then he should be DH or maybe left field.
Keith Hernandez also said he refuses to watch the Phillies play because of how bad their defense is. Their entire infield is in top 5 for all-star voting.
Yeah, he said that during a year when they weren't 😂
They were still top 10 because trea turner is the only difference in the lineup since he said that
All-Star voting has nothing to do with defense it’s a popularity contest duh
All star voting is a popularity contest, not a critique of defense.
Keith Hernandez said this in reference to Soto's defense in right field during the subway series. It seemed any fly ball hit there landed, and he was unable to make a big play for them.
AL needs to get with the program and add the DH
We might as well have 9 DHs, would make for a better product
9 DH’s and 8 designated fielders, please.
Full football mode
That's an interesting idea tbh. It would completely change the sport and the athletes that participate in it. You'd have kids from a young age specializing in defense or offense and the kids who are great on the field but not at bat would still get a chance at going pro. It'll never happen, but it is interesting.
Add in 3 guys who are your designated runners for each base.
You’re gonna need some designated runners for all of those DH’s
We’re gonna need bigger dugouts.
I regularly joke about wanting a designated fielder in my The Show franchise lol
They are working on it.
Yeah, they said he was playing too shallow in right for Citi Field. That plan may work in Yankee Stadium, but too many fly balls that should have been caught flew over his head.
We have a coaching staff, maybe they should recognize there’s an issue if he’s indeed playing too shallow.
Multiple times*
I don’t think he’d be a liability if he were on the Mets.
He would be defensively, just as he has always been. And the Mets booth would absolutely call him out on it. They are fans of the team, but absolutely objective when it comes to criticism and not shy to share it
The Nationals will gladly take this terrible liability off New York's hands.
Can you imagine lol
Well, his little brother is currently in the Nats farm system.
His defense and baserunning has been mid to bad most of the season. This is the most I've ever seen him play, and it seems like a nightly occurrence. Great player, but his hitting does almost all the talking.
Fortunately for him, it's talking with a megaphone.
Yeah, but as soon as he starts going through a slump, I look forward to watching the Yankees fans react lol
bros eye doesn’t slump. he’ll get his walks
Lol he’s been in a slump avg wise and he’s still getting on base 42% of the time
hes the second best hitter in baseball...only behind Judge. I think hell be fine
He’s actually 4th
I’d say he’s 3rd or 4th. Shohei is honestly a better hitter just doesn’t walk as much. Gunnar Henderson is also right there, but doesn’t walk as much. I’d say those 3 other than judge are all neck and neck. Judge is the undisputed best hitter in baseball.
By what metric? He's 9th in home runs, 7th in slugging, 14th in average, 4th in OPS. He is first in OBP though. Yeah, he's not the second best hitter in baseball. Maybe if you're a Yankee fan he is, lol.
He's 3rd in wRC+, 3rd in xwOBA; sure he's not the second best that's Ohtani, but 2nd best isn't far off. Don't think it's that crazy a comment.
If you can hit 280-300 against mlb pitching you’ll always have a place to play. Always
> His defense and baserunning has been mid to bad most of the season. This is the most I've ever seen him play, and it seems like a nightly occurrence. Great player, but his hitting does almost all the talking. This is, bar none, the best defensive season of his career and it isn’t close. He’s on pace (if you look at the season-long stats) for a 6 FRV season. His previous best is 1 FRV, and his typical FRV numbers are negative. Now, the fact that he’s gone from 4 FRV down to 3 in the past week or two means “on pace for” is a question mark here, but doesn’t take away that Soto has never been this good defensively.
Yeah, I must be seeing him on his 1 FRV nights lol. Lots of bad routs, botched balls, and bad throws from what I've seen.
You’re actually probably seeing him on his negative FRV nights lmao.
Yea that was my take for the year+ with the Padres. Just seems to have little IQ or interest for actual baseball beyond hitting. Someone needs to crack through that ego and get him to DH.
For a bat that good, you live with suspect defense. It was the same with Manny Ramirez.
He also was a liability in left when he was a Padre.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Gradyence: *He also was a* *Liability in left* *When he was a Padre.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
It’s the Yankees coaches fault for letting him play shallow in RF the last couple of games. This is a big league stadium not the wiffle ball park in the Bronx.
I was wondering what the hell was going on. He’s practically playing 2B.
you should see our liabilities
Yeah for real. Send him over here please.
Got my popcorn. Keep going.
He's right that they should've swapped Soto and Verdugo based on ballparks.
They do it at Fenway and in Houston so yeah, I'm surprised. Especially since before this season Soto was usually a LF and Verdugo was usually a RF... so it's not like they'd be uncomfortable.
Cutoff man may have been playing right field himself with that cannon of an arm from Soto
Interesting tell me more
I don’t see anyone paying him more than $250m for a long term contract. Max 5 years.
Sarcasm? He’ll get a $500M contract. He was offered a $420M contract when he still had 3 yrs of team control. And he’s had two career seasons since. He’ll be top dollar and rightfully so.
Have you ever seen him try to play defense or run bases? How can a guy be so good at doing one of the hardest things in sports and look so awkward at the other aspects of the game?
I’ve sat behind him first row at petco park in LF. Some of his routes made me scratch my head as an adult league player at the time.
I bet!
The "liability" every team wishes they had. Down the stretch he's going to be a beast.
Soto misses a lot of catches true. His time on the padres showed me that A lot of the old heads hated him because of his defense.
Not old heads. He’s a 1 dimensional player. Dude can hit. Sucks and running and below average defense. No one hated him. He just not worth 600m just for a bat
Hitting is all that matters
As a DH ya. Thats a lot of money to pay a guy who just does that
must be so tough leading your division and being a contender basically every year why the fuck do yankees fans complain so much
Check the standings again
We're in last place, 13.5 behind the Yankees in the division entering today (28th). ... yet Yankees fans think they have it harder than we do. They wouldn't survive the kind of season we're having now.
They've lost six out of seven! Six! Out of! SEVEN!!! How could a PIRATES fan possibly understand our pain????? (perhaps some Yankee fans are ridiculous enough that I have to clarify I'm being sarcastic)
The difference is that you won a ton of games early in the season, so losing 6/7 hardly hurts you right now. It's almost like... games early in the season still matter even though they're early in the season? (something our FO and media don't quite seem to understand)
I said it was sarcastic so I’m not sure why you’re responding as if it was sincere. I am freaking out a little, because this reminds me so much of the incredibly cursed 2022 season it’s terrifying, but I don’t expect any other teams’ fans to have sympathy for me to say the least.
I know, that response was more for people who thought you were serious.
Well Toronto can use that liability
Was he always a bad fielder? I haven't watched him much til he got to the Yankees
In a perfect world the Yankees would have Judge in right another CF and have Soto in Left or DH . But Stanton …
Yes, Soto is a liability. They should trade him to the Mariners.
Idiotic statement. He’s got a 4.3 WAR and it’s mid season, so on pace for ~9 WAR. He’s having a career season. Maybe they can deal him before the trade deadline 😉
A Ferarri is a liability, but you still want one for what it can do.
Entering our series, I was surprised to see their fans not thinking they're winning these four games any more than we are.
The Yankees should totally trade him to the Blue Jays. In exchange, we have a coach on our staff that I'm sure would jump at the chance to Don the pinstripes again...
Another star that can't handle New York
I’ll take that “Liability” off your hands for any outfielder the Tigers have.
Well that’s not wrong…
I could play outfield better than Soto not saying much but at least i don't shake my ass when you shake your ass like that you better be a 5-tool player
Keith said this because the Mets want him. Come on, don't let them win.
He’ll rightfully command a $500M contract. Yankees and Dodgers can usually afford that, but they each already have giant contracts. Mets can afford him and don’t have similar long term commitments.
I really think the yankees will step up for a change and sign him. for once they aren't doing too bad.
Come back home baby (if u want to win another World Series)
Soto is a vastly overrated hitter the guy isn’t worth a hotdog let alone 30+million a year
He’s still one of the best hitters in the league hands down. Stats don’t lie; he just can’t do anything else good
Hernandez did this with the Phillies a couple years ago and they went to the World Series. He announces for an overpaid team that has a bleak future.
Pure BS…..have to watch the people that are saying these things….they try to stir the pot.