The New York Yankees took two out of three games in the highly discussed Subway Series against the New York Mets last weekend. And as a result, much of the conversation around baseball media on Monday centered on the unexceptional return to Yankee Stadium for Juan Soto.
While Soto’s excellent plate discipline was on full display throughout the series, drawing four walks in the three games, he was unable to get much going with the bat, recording just one hit in the series. His last game of the series on Sunday was particularly rough, going 0-4 at the plate with two strikeouts in the series-deciding game.
Yankees TV play-by-play man Michael Kay had plenty to say about Soto’s performance on Monday’s edition of The Michael Kay Show, detailing how he believes Soto appeared to be unhappy on the field, which is what he gathered through conversations with people around both the Yankees and the Mets organization.
“The one thing that I’m sure everyone wants to talk about is Juan Soto,” said Kay. “So, Juan Soto did not have a great game. He walked three times on Friday. But he ended up getting one hit in ten at-bats. I talked to a lot of people in each game. I made it a point to talk to people on the Mets side and really really tried to get some heat by talking to people on the Yankees side on what they were seeing from Soto. I got to Yankee Stadium on Saturday at eight in the morning and I really talked for hours with people. This is what I came up with.
“A lot of people don’t want to hear it. I will preface this by saying, no matter what is going on with Soto now, one hundred out of one hundred times, the Mets have to sign Soto. And one hundred out of one hundred times, Soto is going to be fine. He is one of the great hitters you will ever see. Here’s what I found out. People that I talked to on the Mets side, and they can deny it publicly, because, of course, that’s what they have to do, he is very, very glum around the clubhouse. He does not have a hop in his step. He does not smile much. I’m not gonna say he is unhappy. Because how can you be unhappy with a $765 million contract? But money is not a guarantee that you are gonna be comfortable somewhere.”
As for why Kay believes, or claims to have heard, why Soto is so “glum” in the Mets clubhouse, he outlined how Soto wanted to sign with the Yankees, but was ultimately influenced by his family to sign with the Mets.
“Why isn’t he happy? It comes down to this. I’ll say it now, and it will be denied. Of course, it has to be denied. But I have talked to people that I respect. He wanted to return to the Yankees. That was his preference. His family said, ‘You are going to the Mets.’ His family felt very comfortable around Alex and Steve Cohen. And they said, ‘You are going to the Mets.’ And he is a guy that listens to his family. So I think at this point, he is probably a bit down, pouting a bit. And then to come into Yankee Stadium with three straight sellout crowds, at a place that was his Field of Dreams. It became his Field of Nightmares over the weekend.”
Truth be told, the only way that baseball fans will know for sure what was the determining factor in Soto signing with the Mets will be to hear it from the man himself. And thus far, Soto hasn’t alluded to any kind of dissension from what his family wanted.
Still, it is notable that Kay is not the only media personality to speak to Soto potentially being unhappy in recent days. In a report on Monday morning, Bob Klapisch of NJ Advanced Media described Soto as “downright miserable” in an article, speaking to some of what Kay seems to have been hearing throughout the series.
