Silva: Soto's still one of MLB's best pure hitters
Nationals OF Juan Soto has been off to a slow start this season, but NBC Sports EDGE's Drew Silva highlights why the young slugger could soon rebound.
Video Transcript
DREW SILVA: Juan Soto is maybe the best pure hitter in baseball already at age 22. But he did send a scare across the entire MLB landscape when he went down with a left shoulder strain on April 20. Thankfully, at least where things stand right now in mid-May, that injury proved to be relatively minor.
Soto was limited to only hitting and non-defensive duties upon his initial activation from the injured list. But he returned to right field on May 8 at Yankee Stadium, when the Nationals had the option to use him at designated hitter. And so far, everything has checked out fine from a fielding standpoint.
At the plate, there's never been anything to worry about. Soto is off to a slower start than fantasy managers are maybe accustomed to, but he's sure to get back to elite level production at some point here in the near future. The young slugger entered the 2021 season with a career 9.72 OPS through his first 313 Major League games. And he put up an 11.85 OPS in 2020, to go along with a .351 batting average. He had 13 homers and 37 RBIs in 47 games last year, which translates to 45 home runs and 128 RBIs when stretched out to the typical 162.
There's good reason Soto went number two or number three overall in some fantasy drafts this spring. You might have even seen him go number one.
