{"id":751341,"date":"2026-07-14T07:18:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/751341\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T07:18:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:18:43","slug":"juan-soto-thinks-all-star-break-can-benefit-struggling-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/751341\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Soto thinks All-Star break can benefit struggling Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Juan Soto<\/a> was all smiles a few hours before Monday night\u2019s MLB Home Run Derby, soaking in the atmosphere as the Mets<\/a>\u2019 lone All-Star representative.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder that, even amid a trying year for the cellar-dwelling Mets, Soto is delivering a season worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

His .967 OPS ranks second in the National League. So does his .405 on-base percentage. He\u2019s hitting .290 with 21 home runs.<\/p>\n

The result is Soto\u2019s fifth All-Star appearance, and his first with the Mets after last year\u2019s snub. The 27-year-old has now been an All-Star for all four teams he\u2019s played for.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn every team that I\u2019ve been part of, I\u2019ve been giving my 100%,\u201d Soto said Monday. \u201cI\u2019ve been giving everything that I have, and to be recognized with an All-Star Game, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soto is set to start in left field and bat second for the National League in Tuesday night\u2019s All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n

Right now, Soto says he\u2019s \u201cnot thinking about anything else but enjoying the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Soto knows the Mets, now 40-57 and 12.0 games out of a playoff spot, will resume their season in the very same ballpark on Thursday night, when they\u2019re set to begin a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying my best to win games, to help my team. Definitely, it\u2019s not easy,\u201d Soto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how hard my teammates are working. I appreciate that they come in day in and day out. They never stop. They keep grinding. They try to find a way every day. Nothing else I can ask for.\u00a0 \u2026 We haven\u2019t gotten to the spot we want to be. It feels like a little bit of failure. I\u2019ve got to keep going. I\u2019ve got to get better, and I\u2019ve got to try harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Soto is the only All-Star on a roster with a $380 million payroll is a testament to how much has gone wrong for the Mets this year.<\/p>\n

Francisco Lindor missed two months with a calf strain. Bo Bichette got off to a slow start in his first season with the team. Nolan McLean, Devin Williams and Freddy Peralta have all endured uneven seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like everybody needs a couple of days off after a tough stretch,\u201d Soto said. \u201cTo get the days off and kind of, like, start over, I think it\u2019s gonna be good for the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MLB trade deadline is only three weeks away, and more veterans could follow left-hander David Peterson \u2014 traded to the Chicago Cubs last month \u2014 out of Queens.<\/p>\n

The Mets are at serious risk of missing the playoffs for the second year in a row, both with Soto, who signed a 15-year, $765 million contract before the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

But Soto isn\u2019t giving up hope just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep believing. We\u2019re gonna turn things around,\u201d Soto said in a message to Mets fans. \u201cWe have a lot of talent, we have a lot of players that can be elite, so don\u2019t give up on them. We\u2019re gonna turn this back.\u201d<\/p>\n

JUST-IN TIME<\/p>\n

This All-Star Game is doubling as a celebration of Justin Verlander, who is set to retire this winter after 21 MLB seasons.<\/p>\n

Verlander spent only a few months with the Mets \u2014 the 2023 season, during which he was traded to Houston during a pre-deadline firesale \u2014 but the future Hall of Fame pitcher enjoyed his tenure nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really fell in love with the city. It was short, obviously. Didn\u2019t go the way we wanted. There\u2019s a lot of things that were sad about it,\u201d Verlander said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think the relationship with Steve Cohen and his wife Alex, how great they were to me and my family, and getting to play that short time in New York, was incredible. I still have my apartment in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Juan Soto was all smiles a few hours before Monday night\u2019s MLB Home Run Derby, soaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[6546,5,134,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":["post-751341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-all-star-game","tag-baseball","tag-juan-soto","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116917115544359035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}