Juan Soto entered the Home Run Derby with the fewest home runs of the eight players. He was matched up with Shohei Ohtani and at that point, nobody gave him a single chance.
Soto was hitting more ground balls in the first half of the season than he ever had before and only hit 11 home runs on the season. Fast forward to the second half of the season and Soto is a different man A total surprise for our MLB odds.
Before the All-Star break, Soto was batting .283 with a .407 OBP and .851 OPS. His slugging was down to .445 and analysts and fans were questioning his power at this point. Soto took it to Ohtani and in extra time, Soto defeated Ohtani in the first round of the Home Run Derby. He eventually lost to Pete Alonso in the second round but Soto thought the derby would help his swing at the end of the day.
Since the second half of the season, Soto has increased his average from .283 to .302. He’s increased his OBP from .407 to .424. He’s seen his slugging go from .445 to .508 and now his OPS went from 8.51 to .932. In those six games, Soto has five home runs and 12 RBI’s. He’s only had one game with no hits and has three games with three or more hits. He’s also walked at least once in every game but one and in that game where he struggled to get a hit, he found a way on base with a walk despite three strikeouts.
What’s even crazier is that if you take away the game where he had no hits, one walk and three strikeouts, Soto wouldn’t have a single strikeout in the second half of the season. He only has three strikeouts in all six games and 23 at-bats. Even in July now, he has just 10 strikeouts in 59 at-bats. From MASN’s Mark Zuckerman: “You can tell. I just feel so much better now,” he said in a Zoom session with reporters following Sunday’s 8-7 walk-off win at Nationals Park.
“I was thinking about it, and it really helped me a little bit get that feeling of how to put the ball in the air and everything. I tried everything I could in the first half, and the ball still was going to the ground. … I think the derby helped me out big time.” Soto hit the longest home run in the Home Run Derby measured at 520 feet in Coors Field and seemed to be really seeing the ball well during the Derby.
So maybe Soto is an example for everyone. All of the hitters claiming that the Derby messed up their swing sound like they’re making excuses now. Soto went out there and put on a show. According to top sportsbooks, now he’s feeling more comfortable and playing with extreme confidence.
His .932 OPS is ninth in the league and his batting average is above .300. For any power hitter, having an average above .300 is really good, especially with an OPS nearing 1.000. If he continues this power surge, that OPS will reach 1.000.
It seriously looks as though Soto’s Home Run Derby helped his swing. He’s putting the ball in the air again instead of getting on top of the ball and hitting grounders. But here’s another question. Why don’t they do an extended home run derby during batting practice? If it’s that easy of a fix, they should!
I guess you don’t want to get fatigued by game time, which would be the only rebuttal and argument to my thinking. Either way, good for Soto. He’s back and that’s great for baseball. He’s become one of the best power hitters in the league and the fans were missing it in the first half of the season. The Home Run Derby really helped fix Juan Soto so take it into consideration for your next MLB picks.