Mets owner: Soto 'singularly focused on baseball' amid uneven start
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen believes it's only a matter of time before Juan Soto breaks out in a big way.
"If you ask him, he'd probably say it's not going as what he hoped," Cohen said of Soto's start to the season, according to Danny Abriano of SNY.
"That's not what the back of his baseball card would say. But saying that, there's a lot of subtle things that he does that I really think matters. The way that he works the count, makes pitchers throw extra pitches, really matters."
Soto entered Monday as the owner of a .248/.374/.396 slash line and .770 OPS (122 OPS+) in 28 games.
The 26-year-old is still controlling the strike zone at an elite level: He's walked 21 times while striking out only 18 times. However, he's hit only three home runs thus far after slugging 41 last year.
"And saying that, I'm not worried about Juan," Cohen said. "He's singularly focused on baseball. He's a pure hitter. Let's have this discussion at the end of the year."
Cohen brought Soto to Queens on a 15-year, $765-million contract this past offseason, the richest in baseball history.
The lefty phenom is MLB's active leader in on-base percentage (.419) and has hit 204 home runs through eight campaigns.