Juan Soto's Lack of Hustle Raises Concerns in Queens

SportsGrid

Watch Juan Soto's Lack of Hustle Raises Concerns in Queens - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00This Juan Soto stuff has clearly taken a turn the last couple of days.

00:06He didn't really run out too many ground balls against the Yankees over the weekend,

00:11specifically that eighth inning play on Sunday night on ESPN.

00:15And then last night, he kind of didn't run on a ball that he hit off the Green Monster.

00:20I guess he thought it was gone.

00:22Here's first Carlos Mendoza being asked if he has to talk to Soto about hustling.

00:28Here we go.

00:29Soto didn't bust it out of the box on that ball off the wall.

00:32Last night, he had a play where he was a little slow getting out.

00:35Do you have to talk to him about any of that?

00:38Yeah, I mean, we'll talk to him about it.

00:42Tonight, obviously, someone gets a hold of Juan and knows when he gets it.

00:48He's Juan, you know, and he thought he had it, you know, with the win and all that.

00:54And in this ballpark or, you know, anywhere, but in particular in this one,

00:57with that wall right there, you've got to get out of the box.

01:00So, yeah, we'll discuss that.

01:04Oh, okay.

01:05Do you think they're paying him enough money that the guy could actually hustle a little?

01:09I mean, this is a real simple conversation.

01:11Well, apparently, there's not going to be much of a conversation because if you ask Juan,

01:20he don't know what the hell you're talking about.

01:22Here you go.

01:22The last couple of nights, you've had a couple of plays where you were slow getting out of the box.

01:27Is that something you have to be more aware of?

01:30No.

01:31I think being hustle a little bit very hard.

01:34If you see it today, you can tell.

01:36Listen, this guy, you know, isn't this fantastic that this guy left the Yankees?

01:45I've even heard stories that he wanted to stay and his family wanted him to play for the Mets

01:50and they convinced him to play for the Mets and take the most money,

01:54but he actually wanted to stay with the Yankees.

01:56He talks to the Yankee players around the batting cage and at the stadium at the boogie down

02:01like he's best friends with everybody.

02:03And Boone, they're all hugging and laughing, him and Judge, you name it.

02:06I know yesterday you said you don't think Judge cares about him that much, but fair enough.

02:10My point is, isn't this going to be fun to watch this guy get $750 million

02:15and he's not even two months into his job and they're already talking about him not performing?

02:26I mean, if you don't hustle, is that not performing?

02:29They're paying this guy more money than God

02:31and he's already, already got people talking bad about him.

02:36I mean, I mean, he's two months into a 15-year deal.

02:40Like, you can't make this up.

02:42It's only going to get better from here.

02:43We are going to make fun of this guy literally until he jumps in the East River.

02:49Look, there's, you know, this is the price of, you know, you pay for this.

02:53You know, you want all the glory and the $800 million.

02:56You know, you're going to have to deal with this stuff.

02:59And he doesn't like dealing with this stuff.

03:02Do you want to know why?

03:03Because he's never had to deal with it before.

03:05He didn't have to deal with it in Washington.

03:07He didn't have to deal with it in San Diego.

03:10And when, look, I know it was the Yankees, but when you're on the Yankees,

03:15there's one guy who's always going to be the star.

03:18And that's Aaron Judge.

03:20Like, Judge is the guy who's going to be the first guy that everybody's going to go to.

03:23Right. He didn't have to worry about it.

03:24And he didn't have to worry about it.

03:26Now, when you get the big check, you're the guy that they're going to look at every little thing.

03:31And let me tell you, we watched Soto last year on the Yankees.

03:34Plenty of nights he didn't run out ground balls.

03:36Plenty of nights.

03:38He's just that type of player.

03:40You've got to take a little bit of the good with the bad.

03:42But because it's two months into an $800, $780, $800 million deal,

03:47it's going to get magnified a little bit more.

03:51Especially when, what have they been doing the last two weeks?

03:54They're losing some ballgames, right?

03:55Losing.

03:56Remember in April when they were out to that fast start and they were all about,

03:59he wasn't playing well, but nobody talked about it because they were winning.

04:03Now they're losing some games.

04:05And the things like him not hustling out of the box, it gets magnified.

04:09That's what happens when you lose.

04:10I'll say this.

04:11When they were in the playoffs,

04:14Stanton and Soto were the hardest outs on the Yankee lineup.

04:19I mean, without a doubt, he was 10 times better than Judge in the playoffs.

04:25His at-bats were spectacular.

04:28And he had tons of gigantic hits.

04:30He is a great at-bat.

04:32I'll give him that.

04:33I think he's the toughest out in baseball.

04:35I really do.

04:35I think he has the best eye and the best at-bat in the game.

04:39And that's what they're paying for.

04:41And all this other stuff, they're just going to have to deal with because he doesn't do that.

04:44He's not good in right field.

04:47He doesn't hustle.

04:50He's not good on the base path.

04:51He's terrible on the base path.

04:53He's a butcher in the field, and he's not great on the base paths.

04:57But he's maybe the best pure hitter in the game.

05:01And you've got to deal with it.

05:02And just like I said to you, he was able to relax like that.

05:05He wasn't the guy.

05:07And there's nothing wrong with that.

05:08But the pressure was on Judge.

05:11Judge is the guy that feels the pressure on the Yankees when things don't go well.

05:16Now he's got it.

05:17If you get the $800 million, you get it.

05:19All right?

05:19You get it on the Mets because now you're the guy.

05:22You've got to deal with it.

05:23He's just going to have to figure it out.

Category

Transcript

Recommended