Despite a challenging season that has seen the New York Mets fall to what is projected to be the franchise's first last-place finish in 23 years, outfielder Juan Soto is determined to play again this year. Soto, 27, declared Monday that he "100 percent" plans to return after being placed on the injured list with his second calf strain since April.
"I feel I'm young enough to recover quickly," Soto said Monday before the Mets' game against the Braves. "We don't know how I'm going to feel tomorrow, the next day, so we're just taking it day by day right now... I'm hurt right now, but I'm hoping to be back soon and help as much as I can."
Soto most recently aggravated the injury while running the bases in Friday's loss to the Dodgers. An MRI revealed a Grade 2 strain, a more significant injury than the one he sustained in the spring, which kept him sidelined for nearly three weeks. He had experienced discomfort in his calf the week prior, leading him to miss a game against Milwaukee and serve as a designated hitter in his two most recent appearances. Soto, who holds the largest contract in Major League Baseball history, expressed no regrets about playing through the pain.
"I don't," Soto said when asked if he regretted playing through discomfort. "I'm trying to go out there and help my team to win ballgames. Whatever it takes. Sometimes it's tough. We were hoping it would go the other way, and I [would get] better and healthier and keep going, but it didn't. We were expecting something [from the MRI] because I was going through it a lot. I was in a lot of pain, but I [kept] pushing."
Prior to this season, Soto had not been on the injured list since 2021 and had missed a total of just 16 games in the previous four seasons. Despite battling various injuries, including hand and elbow issues in addition to the calf problems, Soto has delivered a strong performance. He leads the Mets with 21 home runs and 52 RBIs, boasts the best on-base percentage in the National League (.404), and has an OPS of .947, which ranks third in MLB. Last year, he finished third in the NL MVP voting.
Interim manager Andy Green supports Soto's desire to return, even with the team's current standing. "We want to get to the other side of the injury risk and get him completely healthy before we even engage in that conversation," Green stated. "We think the timelines line up that there's enough of a season left that it's worthwhile to get one of our best players on the field and go win baseball games. The fans who show up deserve to see the best that we have available and he's the best that anyone has available. Once he gets to that spot, it's about the pride in New York and the pride in your team and going out to win the baseball games that you have to play. If he's healthy, that's the right decision for him and for us."
Green added that the team would take all precautions to avoid exacerbating Soto's injury. "Obviously we'll do everything humanly possible not to put him in a bad spot... but it's his burning passion to be on the baseball field playing baseball and that passion is one of the things that makes him really good at what he does. You would expect that passion to push him to get back in September at some point in time, who knows if sooner."