As Mets pitchers lined up along the third baseline to take their turns in one of those mundane spring training drills Saturday morning, an outfielder whose presence was not required sidled into the queue.
Within seconds, Freddy Peralta’s laugh rang out over the voices of coaches and infielders navigating rundowns. A coach or two wandered over to get in on the joke. New center fielder Luis Robert Jr. wandered over and seemed to catch some flack. A few minutes later, Juan Sotoemerged from the huddle that had suddenly formed around him, his attempt to feign solemnity disrupted by a smile he could not hide.
The moment is one of many like it in the early weeks of Soto’s second spring training as a Met and emblematic of his presence so far: the 27-year-old looks less like a player trying to determine his role in the clubhouse and more like a superstar who understands it perfectly.
Impromptu gatherings seem to coalesce around him, whether in the back corner of the clubhouse with Spanish-speaking relievers or behind home plate during live batting practice, where he and Carlos Beltran descended on Robert Jr. because both noticed something with his hands as he was loading.
“We’re just talking a bunch of crap all day. We’re usually not talking that much about hitting,” Soto said. “Definitely when things come up like that, and Beltran is trying to explain something, I try to be there just to be there for him and also listen for myself.”
Soto is now a relative old-timer on a new-look Mets roster devoid of many players who used to mold its personality. This year, Soto and Francisco Lindor will anchor a core built around newcomers Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, and Jorge Polanco, all of whom earned teammates’ respect elsewhere and are known as less vocal, lead-by-example types.
And while the dynamic between Lindor and Soto last season was reportedly uncomfortable, it has not been on display much at all in the early days of camp. Lindor, like most injured veterans, is maintaining a low profile in the clubhouse as his left hand heals from surgery. Soto spends most of his time with the outfielders anyway. At the moment, there seems to be plenty of room for comfortable coexistence.
At the very least, Soto said his offseason was more comfortable than the last one, and a few teammates have noticed he has a slightly different look: Soto arrived looking visibly more muscular in his arms and shoulders, prompting his former Yankee teammate, Luke Weaver, to ask, “Are you getting bigger, or am I getting smaller?”
Soto said he did not make a concerted effort to add muscle this winter and that he tried to do the same things he has done in years past. But this winter, he was able to do them better.
“I feel like last year’s offseason was kind of tough. I was going through a lot of ups and downs. Traveling a lot. Moving everywhere. Getting phone calls. Stopping workouts in the middle. It just wasn’t my best workouts,” Soto said. “This year, I could work a little harder and have a little more fun with it.”
The slugger will spend spring training refamiliarizing himself with left field, where he will play regularly for both the Mets and the Dominican Republic in next month’s World Baseball Classic. Several defensive metrics suggested Soto had the second-worst defensive season last year in right field, and he has been open about his desire to improve defensively. He played four innings in left field Saturday and successfully fielded a base hit.
Of course, comfort comes easily in spring training, when a few innings comprise a full day’s work and losses end in laughs. But Soto seems at ease in his routine, comfortable with his teammates, and eager to help Robert Jr. unlock his full potential. And after an offseason filled with discussion about the emotional state of stars in the Mets clubhouse, comfortable seems like a reasonable place to start.
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