Soto wastes no time living up to hype, homers in first Mets at-bat

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Juan Soto understands he has a reputation. He also understands even a reputation as outsized as his needs affirmation.

“Everybody knows who you are,” Soto said Saturday afternoon, after homering in his first spring plate appearance with the Mets in their 6-2 victory. “But they’ve got to see it with their eyes.”

To begin, Soto converted the thousands in attendance at Clover Park, scores of them donning brand-new No. 22 jerseys. They came to see exactly what Soto delivered.

Batting second in his debut, Soto stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first, offered a nod to the Houston dugout, greeted Astros catcher César Salazar with a pat on the back, then casually clubbed a 426-foot homer over the left-center-field fence. Though this was merely a spring exhibition, the seating bowl and dugout both erupted into applause. In the midst of the turmoil, Soto accidentally stepped on teammate Jesse Winker’s foot.

“He was really in pain,” Soto said, smiling, “but he was happy.”

The Mets, of course, did not commit 15 years and a record $765 million to Soto this offseason in hopes that he would hit Grapefruit League homers. Still, it was as auspicious a start as they could have dared to script. Facing Minor League left-hander Colton Gordon, Soto took two balls before swinging through a 91 mph fastball near the top of the zone.

“I could see it on his face, he was feeling himself,” Soto said of Gordon’s reaction after that swing-and-miss. “So he’s coming with another one. I’ve just got to make sure I didn’t miss it.”

Soto did not.

“It just feels like the more people are watching, the more that’s at stake, you’re going to get Juan Soto in the box, and he does special things,” said starting pitcher Clay Holmes, another Mets debutant who threw three perfect innings. “It’s one of those things where the back of my mind I’m like, ‘Man, I would not be surprised to see if he does something here.’ It was cool to see. That’s just him.”

On this occasion, more people were indeed watching: an announced crowd of 7,394 was on hand at Clover Park, marking the stadium’s second-largest attendance for a spring opener. (The first was Matt Harvey’s return from Tommy John surgery in 2015.)

And while Grapefruit League homers don’t count for much, Soto was pleased given his history this time of year. Early in his career, Soto said, he struggled to find his timing by the start of games in February. The past two or three years, he’s made that a focus of his preparation.

“I’ve been working more smart, working more specific things and trying to do what I need to do,” Soto said. “Instead of doing a lot of things, just doing things specifically -- what are the things I need to do specifically to be ready for spring? And it’s been working.”

In those ways and others, Saturday’s game seemed like a preview of what could be coming. Despite this being their Grapefruit League opener, the Mets played five of their nine position-player regulars. Soto batted second behind Francisco Lindor, which is almost certainly how manager Carlos Mendoza will draw things up on Opening Day. Pete Alonso was third in the lineup, as he could be March 27 in Houston.

Those three own contracts worth a combined $1.16 billion. Soto’s, of course, is not only the largest of the bunch, but the biggest by far in Major League history.

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With that sort of money comes an outsized set of expectations. When Soto stepped to the plate in the first inning, fans saluted his presence, showing their appreciation for a player who’s going to be a Met for a long, long time. And while one spring homer can’t vindicate a contract of that size, it was a pretty good sign in Soto’s first game as a Met.

“Pretty incredible, I’m not going to lie,” Mendoza said. “Just having the ability to turn the switch like that -- you put a different guy on the mound with a different uniform, and he’s just locked in.”