Juan Soto came back from a calf injury that cost him most of April and has looked like a star ever since. Since May 14, he has reached base in 14 straight games, hit eight home runs and posted a 1.310 OPS while driving in 13 runs and scoring 15 times.
That kind of stretch is why Soto is being searched now. He is giving the Mets a marquee bat to watch in real time, even as the club keeps dragging through a season that has been defined more by disappointment than momentum. New York was swept by the Marlins on the road last week, another reminder that one hitter can only do so much when the rest of the order goes quiet.
The numbers around Soto make that divide even sharper. The Mets are 22-19 in games he has started, but the production has not translated cleanly into wins and losses. In victories, Soto has an.810 OPS with four home runs. In defeats, he has a 1.162 OPS with eight home runs. He has been overwhelming opposing pitchers, just not always in games New York has been able to finish off.
That is the part that gives the streak its edge. Soto is producing at a level that belongs in the MVP conversation, and the Mets have not matched it with enough support. The offense around him has not been consistent enough to turn his hot month into a club-wide run, which is how a dangerous stretch for the player has coexisted with a team that keeps slipping toward the wrong end of the standings.
Joey Votto recently added to the conversation on MLB Network, praising Soto in terms usually reserved for inner-circle greats. Votto compared him to Hall of Famer Mel Ott and said Soto is one of the most important players of the post-integration era. He went even further, saying he could argue Soto belongs among the three to five best left-handed hitters of all time.
The broader question now is whether the Mets can give that kind of performance a chance to matter. If the lineup behind Soto does not wake up soon, his hot streak may become another brilliant individual run attached to a team headed toward the wrong kind of deadline conversation later in the summer.
