The best left-handed hitter in New York Mets history, so far, was at the New Yorker’s spring training camp on Monday, and Darryl Strawberry is seeing firsthand the player the team hopes will eventually surpass him in that category.
Juan Soto chose the Mets over the Yankees in free agency and Strawberry, who played and won World Series titles in both places, is confident Soto made the right decision, The Post reported
The Mets are now the “Juan Soto team”
Strawberry has one main reason to guess why Soto left the Bronx for Queens: it’s his team now
“It was good for him to make the decision to play here because now he’s not going to be behind anybody,” Strawberry said. “Juan Soto with the Mets, yes, you have Francisco Lindor, which is great, but if you play with the Yankees with a guy like Aaron Judge, you’re never going to be bigger than him.”
That won’t be a problem in Queens after Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract to become the face of the Mets.
“His arrival here means everything,” said Strawberry, who arrived at camp as a guest instructor on Sunday. “It takes you to the next level when you have that kind of player. Last year was a great run for them and they realized they were missing that guy in the lineup, that star.”
Not every team has one. There’s Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers, Judge with the Yankees and Soto with the Mets. That’s what they do. You need those kind of players and now the Mets have that guy
Knowing that Soto will be with the Mets, presumably for the rest of his career, will also serve the Dominican, according to Strawbery, who was a champion with the Mets in the 1986 season after defeating the Boston Red Sox in seven games in one of the most dramatic and memorable World Series in MLB history.
“He got a chance to go to another level in his career,” Strawberry said after Soto batted second in the lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals at Clover Park on Monday. “Fifteen years to focus in one place and not wonder where he’s going will be good for him. And being in New York is good for him.”
“I think he realized that playing with the Yankees last year, how good he can be. It’s about trying to win and not just putting a team on the field. The Yankees have always done that and now these guys are doing it too,” explained the former Mets outfielder
The Mets’ new “Big Three”
Soto’s arrival gives the Mets what Strawberry called a “Big Three” that reminds him of the lineup he was part of in the mid-1980s.
“We had Keith Hernandez, myself, and Gary Carter,” Strawberry recalled. “They have Soto, Pete Alonso and Lindor. Not to mention other players like Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Alvarez, but they have really established players that you can count on.”
However, Strawberry also knows that nothing is guaranteed.
“Everything looks great and Soto puts them above everything else,” Strawberry said. “You have to make it happen on the field.”
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