Mets’ Soto arrives, happy long-term future secure
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Jorge Castillo
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — More than two months after signing the richest contract in professional sports history, Juan Soto reported to work Sunday for the first time as a member of the New York Mets not yet having fully digested the life-changing, $765 million commitment.
“Not yet,” Soto said with a smile. “I’m still thinking about it and everything. It’s unbelievable. I’m really happy for that. I’m really happy to know where I’m going to be for the next 15 years.”
Soto arrived for his first day of spring training a little after 7 a.m. ET on Sunday, the day Mets position players were asked to report. He underwent the usual physical before putting on a uniform and emerging for a workout to a horde of media and fans.
He chatted with manager Carlos Mendoza by the bullpen mounds. He stretched on one of the several back fields, bantering with his new teammates and hearing greetings from fans.
“Welcome to the team!” one man exclaimed a few times. “Bring us to glory!”
Soto took batting practice in a group with veterans on the main field at Clover Park, and effortlessly lined balls around the diamond. He launched one ball nearly over the batter’s eye in straightaway center field. It was business as usual even if it wasn’t.
“It’s exciting,” Mendoza said. “You could see it. All the people. There’s a lot more cameras. As soon as he stepped on the field, he was walking toward the cage, you could just feel it. And when he stepped in that batting cage with all the boys who were there … heads turned around. It was like, ‘OK. Here he is.”’
For Soto, Sunday represented the beginning of some long-awaited stability. The Mets are his fourth franchise in fewer than three years. His impending free agency had been a subject that lingered over him from the moment it was leaked that he had turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract extension from the Washington Nationals — the organization that signed him out of the Dominican Republic as a teenager, called him up for his major league debut at 19 and won a World Series with him in 2019.
In July 2022, the Nationals traded him to the San Diego Padres, who traded him to the New York Yankees in December 2023. Soto’s one season in the Bronx was a tremendous success. He clubbed a career-high 41 home runs with a .989 OPS, helped fuel the Yankees to their first World Series appearance in 15 years and finished third in the American League MVP race, setting the stage for a free agent frenzy at age 26. In December, he chose to cross over to Queens, marking the end of the uncertainty.
“It feels pretty good to be sitting here, that I’m going to be here for a long time and be sitting in the same chair for a long time,” Soto said. “It’s really exciting. I can’t wait to see how it goes through the years and how we can enjoy it and embrace it every year.”
For Starling Marte, Soto’s arrival represented a demotion. Marte, the Mets’ primary right fielder the previous three seasons, enters spring training slated for a lesser role in a platoon at designated hitter against left-handed pitchers, with the occasional start in the outfield for the final year of his four-year, $78 million contract.
The 36-year-old Marte said the team was transparent with him during the offseason, informing him after signing Soto that he could be traded. But a move for the 13-year veteran never happened.
“Nobody wants to be traded from a team where they’ve spent some years,” Marte said in Spanish. “The comfort that you feel with the team and the staff, you get used to that. But at the same time, you want to play every day. … Wherever they need me, I’ll be here doing my best each day.”
Soto, meanwhile, will replace Marte as the team’s every-day right fielder, with some designated hitter sprinkled into his workload, Mendoza said. Where Soto will hit in the lineup is less clear: Mendoza said he expects him to bat either second — behind All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor — or third. Soto said he’ll bat wherever the team prefers.
“I started that conversation today,” Mendoza said.
Off the field, Soto, who was surrounded by older stars in his previous stops, will take the next step as a franchise cornerstone and veteran leader, given his status and contract, even if he doesn’t seek it.
“I’m here to be the same guy I’ve been since day one,” Soto said. “That is Juan Soto. Now I’m just with a different uniform, but I’m going to be the same guy.”
That guy, the Mets hope, will help the organization win its first World Series in nearly 40 years in 2025, and more championships beyond that. For now, he’s the new guy again, introducing himself to everybody and beginning what he expects to be his final transition to a new club for years to come.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Auston Matthews hadn’t scored against Florida in more than a year. He ended the drought — and might have also saved Toronto’s season.
Matthews got his first goal of the series to break a scoreless tie in the third period, Joseph Woll stopped 22 shots and the Toronto Maple Leafs kept their season alive by beating the Florida Panthers 2-0 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series Friday night.
“Just a gutsy, gutsy win,” Matthews said.
Game 7 is Sunday night in Toronto. The winner will face Carolina in the East final.
“We played a simple game tonight,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said.
Simple, but effective. Toronto blocked 31 shots, plus killed off all four Florida power plays.
Max Pacioretty added an insurance goal for the Maple Leafs, who improved to 4-2 when facing elimination since the start of the 2023 playoffs.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 15 shots for the Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions who oddly are only 8-7 in potential closeout games over the past three postseasons.
“You win or you learn,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Tonight, we learned.”
Florida coach Paul Maurice is 5-0 in Game 7s, including the final game of last season’s Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers are 3-1 all time in the ultimate game of a series — 2-0 on the road — while the Maple Leafs have lost each of their past six Game 7s. Of those, four were against Boston and now-Panthers forward Brad Marchand.
“We’re not going to show any video of those Game 7s,” Maurice said. “We’ll look at our game tonight and see where we can get better.”
It was the 68th game of this season’s playoffs — and only the second that was 0-0 after 40 minutes. The other was Wednesday night, when Edmonton eliminated Vegas with a 1-0 victory in overtime in Game 5 of that Western Conference semifinal series.
Toronto had five goals in Game 1, four more in Game 2 and had three by the early goings of the second period of Game 3. Add it up, and that was 12 in basically the first seven periods of the series.
From there, Toronto got basically nothing — until Matthews broke through.
The Toronto captain was 0-for-31 on shots against Florida this season, including the regular season. Bobrovsky had stopped 85 of the last 86 shot attempts he had seen in the series. And the Maple Leafs hadn’t had the lead in basically the equivalent of 3½ games — 216 minutes, 30 seconds, to be precise.
But when a pass got away from Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, Matthews had a slight opening — and that was all he needed. A low shot skittered along the ice and beat Bobrovsky for a 1-0 lead with 13:40 left.
“It’s a big win, from top to bottom,” Matthews said. “We earned that.”
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