Juan Soto and the theory of clutch

Getting to the bottom of the question surrounding the Mets superstar's clutch gene, or lack thereof...

Any time that the Mets acquire a new player of significance, we always desperately seek out that first “Mets Moment” from them. That quintessential hit or play that summarizes why they went out to get him in the first place; the one that makes their mark on this team feel permanent.

And the bigger the player, the more pressure we put on seeing that moment. This can apply to sports fans on the whole, but as Mets fans with a history of being hurt by big free agents who haven’t lived up to the hype many times before – hello we require that instant gratification even more.

It allows us a chance to relax, to unclench, and to just breathe. It gets that proverbial monkey off of our back and allows us to just enjoy the fact that this awesome player is now a legitimate part of our team for years to come.

That’s why so many fans appeared to be hyper-focused on the fact that this exact type of moment seemed to elude Juan Soto for nearly a year-and-a-half into his tenure with this franchise.

The record signing was ballyhooed by many, but the team results around him have made it harder to fully take in Soto’s greatness across these first two seasons here in Queens. As a result of those massive expectations placed upon his shoulders and the fact that the team has played some of the worst baseball in the sport over the last calendar year, only more attention had been paid to Soto and his apparent lack of the dramatics since changing teams.

That, of course, all changed during New York’s last road trip of the first half as Soto finally came through with that exact moment fans of these team had been chasing after since the day he first signed. With two outs in the 9th inning on the road in Atlanta facing the first place Braves, trailing by a 3-2 score, Soto crushed a ball deep down the right field line as it flirted between staying fair or going foul.