NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto was back in the New York Mets' lineup Wednesday night — and boy did they need him.
The star slugger was reinstated from the injured list and went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk as the Mets stopped their 12-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
"He looked really good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
However, the excitement surrounding Soto's return was tempered when teammate Francisco Lindor went down
with an injury similar to the one that had sidelined Soto since April 3.
Lindor exited in the fifth inning with left calf tightness, and the switch-hitting shortstop will have an MRI on Thursday.
“Here we go again,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to wait and see what we’re dealing with.”
Soto, who missed 15 games with a right calf strain, batted second as the designated hitter. He received a warm hand when he stepped to the plate in the first inning, with some in the sparse crowd standing, and his flyout to deep center field advanced Bo Bichette from second to third. That led to a run when Bichette scored on Lindor's two-out infield single.
Soto also lined out to right in the third, walked in the fifth and singled in the eighth before getting picked off first base while trying to steal second.
“I don’t think it’s going to be any pressure,” Soto said before the game. “I’m just going to be myself and be out there, definitely help as much as I can to get out of this and put the team in the right spot again.”
Soto has hit safely in all nine games he's played this season. He became the first player in major league history to draw 900 walks before turning 28.
“It makes a big difference just to add his name in the lineup. But also, I said it yesterday: You can’t put all the pressure on him," Mendoza said. "It’s going to take all of us to get out of this. It’s not just Juan Soto.”
To open a roster spot, third-string catcher Hayden Senger was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse following Tuesday night's 5-3 loss to Minnesota.
After beginning the season with baseball's largest opening-day payroll at $352.2 million, the Mets (8-16) entered Wednesday with the worst record in the majors. New York was outscored 67-22 during the skid while batting .194 with a .284 slugging percentage. The slide began with a 7-2 loss to Arizona on April 8.
“I feel like we have a great lineup. We have guys (who) are going through tough times right now. They can’t get a hit or anything, and it’s part of it. We all go through that stuff," Soto said. "But it’s tough when kind of like most of the lineup is going through it. It makes it a little hard to win games like that.”
At first, the Mets will be cautious with Soto. He is scheduled to play the outfield Thursday night and then the team will “reassess,” Mendoza said. The four-time All-Star and six-time Silver Slugger Award winner will receive some full days off moving forward.
“We need to be flexible and we have to stay on top of things with him,” Mendoza explained. "If we see that there’s a couple of games, two or three games where he does a lot of running on base, going first to third, first to home, second to home, in the outfield, then we’ll have to adjust. And hopefully that’s the case. That means he’s on base and we’re scoring a lot of runs. So, yeah, I think it’s fluid. But at the same time we just have to be smart with him.”
Soto exited early from a 10-3 victory at San Francisco on April 3, and the Mets won their next three games without him before descending into a tailspin. The 12-game slide was their longest since August 2002.
“It’s a little uncomfortable when you see it from the outside,” Soto said. “It’s just a tough time, but we’re going to get out of it.”
Soto is in the second season of a record $765 million, 15-year contract he signed with the Mets as a free agent in December 2024. He was batting .355 with one homer and five RBIs before getting hurt while running from first to third on an RBI single by Bichette against the Giants.
Soto did not go on a minor league rehab assignment to prepare for his return, instead going through workouts at Citi Field while the Mets were on the road last week.
“Felt like he got what he needed here," Mendoza said. "Plenty of at-bats. We brought a lot of pitchers in here. We were able to simulate a lot of the things that you do on a rehab assignment.”
Soto said he's 100% healthy. He and Mendoza both insisted the left fielder did not rush back any earlier than expected.
The stint on the IL was the first for Soto since 2021 with Washington, when a strained left shoulder sidelined him from April 20 through May 3.
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