What does Juan Soto have to do to truly earn his contract with the Mets?

The New York Mets signed superstar free agent Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract during the offseason, which shattered all kinds of records. It’s a lot of money to commit for an extended period of time, even though both parties could go their separate ways in five years. What would Soto have to accomplish to truly make this contract worth it for the New York Mets? All statistics are sourced from Baseball Reference.

The most obvious return on investment Mets owner Steve Cohen and fans of the franchise want to see is World Series titles. Simply put, if Soto doesn’t lead New York to at least one championship, the arrangement will be viewed as a massive disappointment.

According to the New York Post, Cohen told Soto during the latter’s free agent courtship that he would like to win between two and four World Series in the next 10 years. That would mean the Mets need to turn into one of the best teams in recent baseball history, and Cohen thinks Soto is the man to get them there.

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Soto isn’t shying away from those lofty goals. He said during his introductory press conference, “I feel that is what it’s all about, why you play baseball—to be a championship player and win as many as you can. At the end of the day, you can have all this stuff, but if you don’t win it’s kind of hard.”

Cohen and Mets fans feel like this is a logical step to take, considering the team is coming off an NLCS appearance in 2024. While it’s not too much of a leap to go from the LCS to the World Series, it just underscores how much pressure Soto has to win right away with his new team.

Of course, part of the reason why Soto received his gargantuan deal was for his exemplary performance in the playoffs. Forbes’ Larry Fleisher wrote in October 2024 the “Yankees get a closeup at Juan Soto’s masterclass in postseason clutch hitting”, alluding to his torrid run for the Bronx Bombers. With his new deal, Soto can’t just be along for the ride; he needs to drive the car.

While aspirations of being a perennial World Series contender are relatively obvious, Soto will also need to scoop up some individual honors along the way as well, if his contract is going to be deemed reasonable when all is said and done.

Juan Soto has had a fantastic career to date, but he hasn’t won any MVP awards during his previous seven big league seasons. Will Leitch of MLB’s website wrote in November 2024, “we’ve all been saying ‘Soto is going to win an MVP any day now’ for roughly a half-decade, and he still hasn’t done it.”

Now that Soto is back in the National League, it’s not going to be easy to battle the likes of Shohei Ohtani or teammate Francisco Lindor for MVP year in and year out, but he’s getting paid top dollar to one up both of those sensational players.

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It won’t matter how many All-Star level teammates Soto plays with over the course of his New York Mets career. He’ll need to be markedly better than all of them to prove that he’s the top dog, and was deserving of a contract that reset the market.

Soto hit a career high 41 home runs last year in his only season with the New York Yankees. Mike Petriello of MLB’s website wrote that his OPS was 57 points higher away from the Bronx in 2024. With that said, Soto is gearing up for a transition to a more pitcher-friendly park in Citi Field. While that could be a valid excuse for power to go down, fans aren’t going to want to hear it if he only hits 25 home runs next season, for example.

One of Soto’s greatest traits is that he is usually not tempted to swing at bad pitches. He’s led all of MLB in walks in three separate seasons. Despite the amount of free passes he takes, Soto does not often miss pitches when hurlers actually do want to challenge him. He’s a career .285 hitter heading into 2025, but he may need to hit at an even higher clip moving forward.

Soto won the National League batting title in 2020 with the Washington Nationals, and will need to be amongst the league leaders in that department. This holds doubly true if Soto’s power numbers are down; he’ll need to make up for it with elite contact hitting. He’s certainly capable of doing it.

David Adler of MLB’s website wrote in December 2024, “Juan Soto, in other words, is one of the greatest on-base machines we’ve seen step into a batter’s box in the last decade. You could argue that he is the greatest.”

In addition to the team accomplishments and individual accolades, Soto will also need to provide leadership in the clubhouse. One of the reasons why Francisco Lindor has become so beloved as a Met is his willingness to help others. Soto will need to do the same. Randy Miller of NJ’s website said on a Yankees Unloaded podcast that Soto “is not a leader.”

What’s the bare minimum Juan Soto should accomplish during his tenure with the New York Mets? Let us know what you think!

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