Juan Soto drama has Blue Jays fans feeling better about missed free agency pursuit

It’s no secret that the Toronto Blue Jays were all-in on Juan Soto during free agency. Toronto was floated as a potential Soto destination leading up his free agency, and the hype around him reaching Toronto reached a fever pitch in November when it was reported that the Blue Jays would have the offseason’s first meeting with Soto. 

And while Soto spurned the Blue Jays to sign a record 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets felt eerily familiar to the Blue Jays missing out on Shohei Ohtani, things haven’t been going great for Soto in his first month in Queens, which is making it seem like the Blue Jays dodged a bullet when it comes to the generational talent.

Juan Soto drama has Blue Jays fans feeling better about missed free agency pursuit

And first off, that’s exactly what Soto is: a generational talent. In the grand scheme of things, Juan Soto’s contract with the New York Mets could end up becoming one of the best contracts in MLB history. 

But it’s not looking like that right now. 

Soto enters Monday slashing .246/.379/.443 on the season for a Mets team that’s in first place in the competitive National League East. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. 

Last weekend the Mets and Yankees met at Yankee Stadium as a part of MLB’s new Rivalry Weekend, but it really should have been renamed “Juan Soto Weekend.”

The former Yankee was making his first return to Yankee Stadium since he left the team in free agency in the offseason, and it seemed like the atmosphere got to Soto.

The boos were loud, the bleacher creatures turned their backs to him and he finished 1-for-10 in the series. The Mets ended up losing two out of three games in the series.

Things weren’t much better for him off the field. 

Soto was originally scheduled to be mic'd up during the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball… before he was replaced by Brandon Nimmo at the last minute, with Bob Klapisch writing that Soto didn’t want to answer questions about Aaron Judge and why he chose the Mets.

He also ducked the media after the game. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Klapisch also wrote that the Mets are concerned about Soto’s lack of enthusiasm around his new team, along with the happiness he showed when reconnected with his Yankee teammates. 

The Soto story got more oxygen on Monday when Boomer Esiason said on his radio show that Soto would be flying on his private plane. There's no one problem: that's not true.

In fact, it was so false that MLB insider Jeff Passan had to put out a tweet saying that Soto didn’t have a private plane clause in his contract. 

Think about how things went after the Blue Jays signed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to an extension (which could have come thanks to the Mets). They announced it in a heartwarming tweet and had a day celebrating Guerrero. The vibes were great. 

Now look at how things are with Soto and the Mets. 

Yes, they’re in first place and Soto’s been worth 1.7 bWAR. But right now all anyone wants to talk about is how it seems like he doesn’t want to be there and how his replacements ruled the roost in the Subway Series. 

Prior to the start of the series, Soto said that he was ready to face off play at Yankee Stadium for the first time as public enemy No. 1. Right now that seems like a huge miscalculation on his part, and the Blue Jays should be glad they’re not the team that has to pick up the pieces.