The right fielder was 5-for-10 in his previous three games against the St. Louis Cardinals, including a two-run double that gave the Mets a 5-3 lead in Sunday’s win. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza pointed to that hit as a “good sign” that Soto was about to break out.

The bottom line: Even while Mets Twitter wrings its hands, Soto is producing at a rate that’s 37% better than league average. That kind of “struggle” would be a career year for most big leaguers. As Mintz says, “That's why Juan Soto is different. … The struggle, the strife, the worry is about a guy who is 37% better than the average hitter.”

Soto’s deal came with enormous pressure to maintain the Hall of Fame caliber production he had shown throughout his entire career. Not only that, but the 26-year-old jumped from arguably the biggest brand in MLB, the New York Yankees, to their crosstown rivals, only adding fuel to that fire.