The dominican Juan Soto goes by many records at the end of this season, things that perhaps do not come to light much, but they indicate that it will be one of the best in history according to the passage of the years in the MLB.
Last year, Juan Soto became the fifth youngest player to win a batting title in the Modern Era (since 1900).
This year? He’ll most likely win another, coming in Tuesday at .321, just shy of the .322 MLB and NL leading average of his former teammate Trea Turner.
Only one player in history has won multiple batting titles before his 23rd birthday: Ty Cobb, who won three.
Last year, he led them all, at .490, becoming the fifth qualified player to lead the MLB in OBP in his season aged 22 and under, along with Bryce Harper, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Ty Cobb. This year, he will join Williams as the only players to do that twice before their 23-year seasons.
Juan Soto He is the only qualified hitter with more walks than strikeouts this season, with 139 free passes and just 86 strikeouts. And of course, as you may have already guessed, Soto also walked more than strikeouts in 2020.
Only one other player has done that in his ranked season of 22 or under in the Wild Card Era: Albert Pujols in 2002. And Soto will now have done it twice within that age frame.
Soto he has 25 MLB-leading games reaching base safely at least four times this season.
Following most of these games? 14 by Freddie Freeman and Carlos Correa. That is a huge gap. So what is Soto’s total rank in the story? I’m glad you asked. There have been only seven individual seasons since at least 1901 in which a player had more than 25 games in which he reached base safely at least four times. Those performances came from: Barry Bonds (2001-02, ’04), Babe Ruth (1920, ’23, ’31) and Lou Gehrig (1931). Talk about next-level business.
• Soto has reached base safely 72 times this month. The next highest amount in any calendar month in 2021? All 57 times Freddie Freeman arrived safely in July. Soto is the fourth youngest player to safely reach base at least 70 times in a month, only older than Mel Ott, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams when they did.
During a streak earlier in the month, he reached base in 12 straight plate appearances. That was the longest streak by a player in the Age of Expansion (since 1961) at age 22 or younger, and the longest in the history of the Nationals / Expos franchise as a whole, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Soto had a good first half, cutting .283 / .407 / .445, but he has been out of this world following the Midsummer Classic and his performance at the Home Run Derby, in which he participated in part to fix his swing. He now has an OBP of .542 in the second half. That would be the fifth highest in the second half since the first All-Star Game in 1933 (minimum 250 AP), behind only Bonds 2002 (.608), Bonds ’04 (.589), Williams 1941 (.583) and Bonds. ’02 (.547).
In September, it has been at an even more impressive level. It has an OBP of .590 this month, which would be the fourth highest in September / October since at least 1901, behind only, you guessed it: bonuses. They would be ’04 Bonds (.619), ’02 Bonds (.614) and ’01 Bonds (.607).
Speaking of power, Soto has 98 career home runs, which is the fourth-most by a player before his 23rd birthday, behind only Mel Ott (115), Eddie Mathews (112) and Tony Conigliaro (104). And that too with a shorter 2020 season.
With information from MLB.com.