New York Mets superstar Juan Soto, who has the most expensive contract in the MLB history, won't be on the All-Star field representing the National League. He came in fifth in the fan voting but still has an outright chance to make the team if a selected outfielder is injured or drops out.
Juan Soto's snub comes after him leading the NL with 4.0 offensive WAR. He is followed by Shohei Ohtahi as the Japanese international has 3.9 offensive WAR. This will be the first time that Soto misses the Midsummer Classic since 2019. Further, there are many reasons to why Juan Soto was snubbed.
Slow Star to the season cost Juan Soto
At the start of the season, Juan Soto was poor at the plate. He could only hit .217 in April as his offensive stats saw a major dip in all the categories. His stats were something that would have kept in mind by the voters as the All-Star selection often lag behind latest performances.
Currently, Soto is hitting .263 along with 21 home runs and 10 stolen bases. All thanks to his offensive heroics since mid-May that saw him clock .287/.432/.548 batting line with a 1.020 OPS.
Ballot and team quotas kept Juan Soto out
The All-Star voting comprises of fan selections, player votes and commissioner's picks. Juan Soto never came in the top three vote getters in fan balloting for his position.
In terms of players who got selected from the New York Mets are Francisco Lindor (starter), reserves - Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.
Competitive NL outfield
Voters had many players to pick in the outfield which included the likes of Ronald Acuna Jr, Corbin Carroll, Kyle Stowers, Fernando Tatis Jr. and James Wood. All of these players were selected ahead of Juan Soto.
But, none of them had numbers better than Soto, like Miami's Stowers or Arizona's Carroll, they were solely selected to fulfill the needs of the team.
Juan Soto's first reaction after All-Star snub
Juan Soto is taking his All-Star snub in his stride. While he regrets missing this year's All-Star game, he hopes to return stronger next season.
For me, I try to play as hard as I can and help the team and enjoy the moment, Soto told the New York Post. Everyone wants to be an All-Star and live the experience of being there, but this year it didn’t happen. I was glad I was able to be there four years in a row. If I didn’t make it this year, it’s no big deal. I’ll come back stronger next year.
Juan Soto got selected four times in a row but missed making it to five straight selections. However, he can use his time to fully rest as he has played almost every game since the start of the season.