The New York Mets will send Juan Soto to the plate as their designated hitter Saturday afternoon against the Yankees, a notable shift after he played the outfield in Friday’s series opener.
Interim manager Andy Green kept Soto in the No. 2 spot in the batting order for Game 2 at Yankee Stadium. The rest of the lineup has Francisco Lindor at shortstop, Bo Bichette at third, Cedric Benge in right, Jared Young at first, Marcus Semien at second, A.J. Ewing in center, Luis Torrens behind the plate and Nick Morabito in left. Zack Thornton is scheduled to start.
The Mets lost the opener 6-4 on Friday night. Soto finished 1 for 5 with two strikeouts. The game ended when he grounded into a double play.
It was Soto’s first look at Yankee Stadium since he left the Bronx. He spent the 2024 season with the Yankees and helped them reach the World Series. That winter he signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets, the largest deal in sports history at the time.
Yankees fans let him hear it again Friday. Soto had already said he expected the same reception he got last year.
“Who knows?” Soto said Friday when asked if the fans still hate him. “But they know I gave my best to them. Some of them appreciate it, some of them don’t. You can’t control that.”
He added that he did not expect anything different this weekend.
“I don’t think so,” Soto said. “I think it’s going to be the same. I am not expecting less than that from Yankees fans. They are really passionate.”
Soto is in his ninth major league season and his second with the Mets. He made his first All-Star team as a Met this summer. He has played 96 games after a recent stint on the injured list.
Through Friday he was hitting .274 with 93 hits, 24 home runs and 59 RBIs in 340 at-bats. He has scored 55 runs, slugged .524 and posted a .918 OPS.
The Mets are 68-79 with 15 games left. They sit 18 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta in the National League East and well out of wild-card range.
Green took over as interim manager in late June after the club fired Carlos Mendoza. The Mets have shown some fight over the past two months but have not climbed back into the race.
Soto’s move to designated hitter gives Green another outfield look while keeping one of the lineup’s most dangerous bats in a prime spot. Soto has spent most of this season in left field after moving there from right during the offseason.
The Subway Series continues Saturday at 1:35 p.m. The teams wrap up the set Sunday.Soto’s patience at the plate remains his calling card. He has drawn 69 walks this season against 55 strikeouts. That on-base skill is why Green is still slotting him second, even on a day he is not playing the field.
The Yankees entered the weekend 85-62 and in the thick of the American League playoff picture. Cody Bellinger’s three-run homer helped them take Friday’s game on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
For Soto, the weekend is another chapter in a career that has already included four organizations, a World Series title with Washington in 2019, and the richest contract in the game. The Mets are still trying to turn that investment into a winning season.
Saturday’s lineup is one more attempt to get more production out of their biggest star before the calendar runs out.
