Padres News: Juan Soto Reveals He's Felt Early Effects of Pitch Clock During Struggles
With the San Diego Padres still only being less than ten games into the 2023 season, they are still getting adjusted to a multitude of factors. Some of their key players still have yet to join the lineup, the bullpen has been questionable, and there is the brand-new pitch clock of course.
Friars fans have gotten a warm welcome to the new rule thanks to Manny Machado. He became the first player to get a violation in Spring Training when it was first introduced along with the first ejection for arguing about a violation a couple of games ago.
It's safe to say the superstar is not fond of it just yet.
However, he's not the only one. Juan Soto has had a slower start to the season than usual. He had his best game Saturday night against the Atlanta Braves where he went two for four at the plate and also drove in his second home run of the season but he is slashing just .182/.325/.394 thus far into the year.
When speaking to representatives of The San Diego-Union Tribune, he revealed that he's been doing everything he can to get comfortable and it's been different mainly due to the pitch clock. Team manager Bob Melvin chimed in and spoke on exactly why Soto is taking a different approach.
"This is a guy that likes to take his time at the plate,” Melvin said. “He likes to banter with the catcher. He talks to the umpire. There are a lot of things that he does that really nobody else does at the plate. So if anybody gets taken out of the routine a little bit, it’s probably him."
(Via The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The 24-year-old slugger has become famous for his notorious shuffle whenever it's his turn to bat but he has always been someone who takes every swing attempt with poise and patience.
Everybody is still learning and adapting to this new rule, including the umpires. so Soto is learning how to better communicate with them.
“I try to talk to them. It’s not much time to talk to them. But definitely, I’m trying to figure out when to call timeout and how to call timeout. … We’ve just got to battle with it. It’s not gonna change. Even if I get as mad as I can, they won’t change it because they already made the rule, and we play for MLB."
(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)
Give it some months and I am very confident we'll see more games like Saturday once Soto is comfortable.
