Early spring training trend could benefit New York Mets' offense

An early spring training trend from the New York Mets' offense could prove beneficial if they can carry it into the regular season.

Feb 22, 2025; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (22) hits a home run in his first at bat for the Mets against the Houston Astros in the first inning at Clover Park. | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

A large part of the appeal in newly-signed New York Mets superstar Juan Soto comes in his Hall of Fame-level plate discipline. The slugger has struck out 100 or more times only three times in seven years and has drawn more walks than strikeouts in each of the last five seasons.

While that plate discipline is not likely to fully transport throughout the clubhouse through osmosis, early returns in spring training have seen the Mets' offense cut down on their strikeouts by a sizeable margin.

Mets fans, if you don't know... now you know.

The Soto Shuffle is one of the many reasons why Juan Soto is one of the game's best players. pic.twitter.com/szTJnP5aEy

— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) February 19, 2025

It is still early, and at the time of writing the Mets have only played three games so there is a small sample caveat, but the team has struck out only 22 times through 112 plate appearances, a 19.6% strikeout rate.

Compare that with the MLB average strikeout rate of 22.6% in 2024, and the Mets' team average of 22.4% last year, and the trend comes more into focus. Over a small sample, a difference of 3.8 percentage points may not be significant but had the Mets struck out at only a 19.6% rate in 2024, their team total strikeouts would have dropped from 1,382 (actual) to 1,209 (hypothetical).

That is a difference of 1.07 strikeouts per game, which adds up over time and could have seen the team deeper into contention late in the year, potentially not even needing the doubleheader with the Atlanta Braves to decide seeding.

For Soto specifically, FanGraphs projects the slugger as the everyday right fielder for the Mets in 2025. In 2024, Starling Marte, Tyrone Taylor, Jesse Winker, and Ben Gamel all spent time at the position, combining for 147 strikeouts. This total was good enough for the 13th-fewest in MLB at the position, though Soto struck out only 119 times, which would have ranked as the smallest team total from the position in MLB for 2024.

Read more: See it: Juan Soto homers in first spring training at-bat with Mets

It could be a promising trend that is in the early stages of development in Port St. Lucie, Florida, or it could be the product of a small sample size early in spring training. No matter which side of the coin you land on, a reduction in strikeouts means more balls in play and more opportunities for opposing defenses to make mistakes.

We all saw what happened in the World Series when teams make opposing defenses try to make a play.

A 5 run lead.

Aaron Judge drops a routine fly ball.
Gerrit Cole doesn’t cover 1st.

$684 million worth of superstars make inexplicable mistakes.

The Dodgers win the World Series. pic.twitter.com/kmGH6m7ylR

— Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) October 31, 2024