Evaluating the beginning of Juan Soto's Mets tenure | Baseball Night in NY

How would you grade Juan Soto's first two weeks with the Mets? That was pretty good alliteration, actually. I thought so. Hey, I don't think it's a slump at all, actually, for Juan Soto. I think this is an A- for me. Wow. I'm that high. Yeah, I really am. And look, I struggle to go lower than that, really, in any way. The only thing I can really think of would be the Josh Hader at bat on the opener, where he struggled to come through there. That's the only reason I knock him. Otherwise, he'd be an A for me. I really believe that. If you look at his career numbers, Sal, he always gets off to this type of start in April, in March. Like, his OPS is always going to be around 850 for this month. Every other month in his career, it's over 900. So I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about any part of it. I know the home runs, look, he only has the one, right? But I would want him to go with two, three, four to end the month. Even the slugging percentage in April and March, it's always around this number. Every other month is always over 500. So I'm not worried about Juan Soto whatsoever. And I also think, look, his impact on the rest of the guys, too, right? Like, we always talk about Pete Alonso, the start that he's off to. It's no coincidence that Juan Soto is in front of him. For as much as we talk about protection, it matters who's batting in front of you a lot of the time. So for me, it's an A-minus and I struggle to go any lower than that. So I gave him a B and I feel your sense of positivity when it comes to Juan Soto. Like, he's going to be fine. The OPS is there. He's drawing his walks. And you mentioned the impact on Pete Alonso. It's obvious. It's clear. I don't think Alonso's putting these numbers up. If Juan Soto's not hitting in front of him. But you mentioned the lack of power. And that's why he's not going to get an A grade, in my opinion, because, well, we're not talking about some run of the mill player now. We're talking about a guy the Mets paid a gazillion dollars to in the offseason. And I think as a whole, those April numbers are probably on par. But if you go back to what he did last year right out of the gate with the Yankees, I mean, it was shock and awe. It was the wow factor across the board. That series in Miami hit his home run in first Yankee Stadium at bat, give or take. So to me, it's one of those where it's like, I know what kind of player we're dealing with. We're dealing on a curve, grading on a curve, which is probably unfair. But that's why I'm giving him a B. But still, he's also reached base safely in 12 of these 13 games, right? That's a career best for him. He's never done that before. So for me, look, I know that he is getting paid $765, and we're expecting him to bat $1,000 every single game. That's just not realistic. Power, though. Well, that's what we want. Power to power. I get it. I get it. It will come. The impactful moments that you said, J.J., to your point, the first 12 games with the Yankees were far better than what they have been for the Mets. And that's why I say, like, even a Soto slump, it's not really a slump because he's still getting on base. So he's much better than your average slump. But we expect a lot more. And if you're giving him an A-minus, where else can you... I think there's a long way to go from where Soto is now to what he could be. That's what makes him so special.