PORT ST. LUCIE — Juan Soto is moving across the field.
After spending his first season in Queens as the right fielder, the franchise player has agreed to begin playing left field full-time, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday.
Soto is slated to play left field for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. It led in recent weeks to conversations between Soto and manager Carlos Mendoza about a switch to left field for the Mets, according to Stearns.
“It made sense for us from a roster perspective so we’re going to go forward with everyone on board with it,” Stearns said. “It’s not something we really contemplated coming into the offseason, but as we had conversations over the last month it made sense.”
With Soto in left field and Luis Robert Jr. in center, right field is now the unclaimed outfield position. Candidates for the spot include Carson Benge, the organization’s top prospect among position players, Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor and MJ Melendez, who was signed to a major league contract Sunday.
“We have got a lot of athletic outfielders at or near the major league level, so having right field available to them isn’t a bad outcome,” Stearns said. “[Soto] is comfortable in left and it fits our roster.”
Juan Soto JASON SZENES/NY POST
Soto has considerable left field experience — he last played there regularly with the Padres in 2023. He was also the starting left fielder for the Nationals in his first two major league seasons. All told, he’s appeared in 460 games as a left fielder and 603 in right field. Soto has started 22 games as a DH in his career, but has previously indicated that spot is not preferable to him.
“Early in the offseason we didn’t know how rosters for the WBC were going to shake out,” Mendoza said. “Once we started [getting] closer to the teams announcing their rosters … the left field conversation came up and he took me down the road of when he first came up [playing left]. He also mentioned that with the Yankees, they had him playing left field when they were playing the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He was very honest and very genuine about it, so that is how I decided.”
Soto was among MLB’s worst defenders last season, when he ranked in only the first percentile for range, at minus-12 outs above average, according to Statcast. He rated better in arm strength, landing in the 66th percentile. But his arm value was only in the 18th percentile.
But the Mets signed Soto to a record $765 million contract over 15 years mainly because of his bat, and in that regard he produced: Soto finished third in the National League MVP voting (behind Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber) after posting a .263/.396/.525 slash line with 43 homers and a career-best 38 stolen bases (which led the NL).
The Mets roster overhaul this winter made the possibility of Soto switching positions more palatable: Brandon Nimmo was traded to Texas for Marcus Semien, leaving the vacancy in left field.
Semien, a Gold Glove winner last season, should improve the Mets defensively at second base. The larger questions are whether Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, who are set to start at third base and first base, respectively, will seamlessly adapt. Bichette, a former shortstop, has not played third base in the major leagues. Polanco has one inning of major league experience at first base. But Stearns has indicated the infield’s athleticism has improved, leaving him optimistic that the unit will bolster the team’s run prevention. Robert, a former Gold Glove winner with the White Sox, will also potentially boost the team’s defense.
