Now, as to the main charge before us from Counselor JM: that Juan Soto is NOT a generational talent.
JM tells us the names—and shows us the stats—of several players whohe considers to be generational talents. They are as follows:
Mickey Mantle
Willie Mays
Mariano Rivera
Shohei Ohtani
Mike Trout (before he was injured)
Ichiro Suzuki
First, we can dismiss Ichiro. I loved to see the guy play, too. He truly was unique, in the modern game. A terrific fielder, a great base stealer—and someone whose very best years, from ages 21-27, we may not even have seen, as he was still in Japan.
Great, great player. But not only did he not hit home runs…he didn’t walk very much. At the plate, he was essentially Mickey Rivers. And we forget how good a hitter Mick the Quick really was. But still.
As for the others…I agree about Mike Trout. A shame what happened to him.
As for The Mick, Willie, and The Great One…they are not simply “generational talents.” They are among the greatest ballplayers who have ever roamed the earth, and I prostrate myself before them.
(Something I actually did at Cooperstown, much to the embarrassment of my wife. Though I did notice they had prayer mats next to their plaques. Just sayin’.)
Which leaves…Shohei Ohtani.
I agree that he is a generational talent, too—with one, obvious advantage over Juan Soto…but not so great an advantage as you may think.
Let's start with the plate, where the two men are...practically identical. Both have been in the majors for eight years. Both have batted .282 lifetime, both have an OPS+ (on-base-plus-slugging, adjusted for ballparks) of 160.
Ohtani leads in lifetime triples (45-16), homers (280-244), stolen bases (165-95, and 79-78 percent), total bases (2,172-2,049), intentional walks (88-80), fewest grounded into double-plays (49-101), hit-by-pitch (25-19), slugging (.582-.531) and on-base-percentage-plus-slugging (.957-.948).
Soto leads in runs (775-708), hits (1,086-1,050), doubles (199-192), RBI (697-669), walks (896-541), fewer strikeouts (883-1,104), on-base percentage (.417-.374), rOBA [I have no good idea] (.409-.404), Rbat+ [another mysterious hitting stat] (162-159), and sacrifice flies, 26-20.
Some of these differences are explainable by what they’ve been asked to do. Batting first more often, Ohtani drives in fewer runs—but also hits into fewer double-plays. Soto has been asked to steal a lot less often.
Soto has many more plate appearance, 4,803-4,329, which accounts for some of his statistical edge in some categories. But that is because Ohtani has missed many more games with injuries in his major-league career—not exactly a selling point for him.
When it comes to the postseason, both are very good:
Soto: 43 G, 191 PA, 11 HR, 30 RBI, .281/.389/.538/.927.
Ohtani: 33 G, 160 PA, 11 HR, 24 RBI, .248/.390/.550/.940.
Ohtani’s teams have won all seven postseason series he has been in; Soto’s have won eight of ten. That’s right: combined, their teams are a remarkable, 15-2 in postseason series.
So let’s get to the one, outstanding difference between them.
Yes, Ohtani (occasionally) pitches. He is a lifetime, 39-20, with a 3.00 ERA, and 1 shutout. He almost never goes beyond six innings. (And is 2-1 in October, with a 4.43 ERA.)
Soto’s defense, by contrast, is “pretty bad,” as JM tells us—
Wait a minute. Squeal the brakes. Full stop. “Pretty bad”?
Soto is certainly an erratic fielder, who makes foolish errors. But “pretty bad”?
Playing left or right, Soto led his outfield position in putouts for 5 straight seasons, if you exclude the weird, 2020 plague year. For left fielders, he led the NL in putouts in 2019 and 2023; in right field, he led the NL in 2021 and 2022.
AND…Soto led all AL right fielders not only in putouts but also in assists, with 9, while playing for your New York Yankees in 2024.
As for Ohtani…well, apart from when he is pitching, he still has yet to record a chance in a major-league game. Aside from the 12-13 games he pitches every year, on average, he is a DH. So there’s that.
Meanwhile, 2025 was a relatively quiet year for Juan Soto, as he had a slump and the Mets collapsed in the end. He only hit .263.
But he also scored 120 runs, belted 43 homers, drove in 105 runs, and led the NL with 38 stolen bases (in just 42 attempts), 127 walks, and a .396 on-base percentage. All while winning his third straight, and sixth overall, Silver Slugger.
By the end of his career, Soto is likely to have over 500 (and possibly over 600) homers, 200-300 stolen bases, and be in the all-time top ten in walks and maybe runs scored.
So yeah: generational talent. The defense rests.
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