Juan Soto: Mets ‘expecting’ to be at top of NL East

Juan Soto spent the first four and a half seasons of his big league career in the National League East. During that stretch with the Nationals, he won a World Series title in his first full big league season, but had just two winning years and never captured a division title.

Back in the division and facing the prospect of a healthy Atlanta Braves side, a retooled Philadelphia Phillies unit, and a young and developing core in Washington, the superstar has high expectations for his first year with the Mets.

“You always gotta be expecting to be on the top,” Soto said Monday afternoon. “It doesn't matter who is in the division, we expecting to be at the top all the time.”

The Mets finished six games behind the Phillies and lost out on second place in the division on a tiebreaker with the Braves last year. With Soto aboard in the first year of a 15-year deal, the Mets' are primed to make a push to capture the NL East for the first time since 2015, but the PECOTA projected standings still have New York 2.2 games behind Atlanta for first place.

But after his first spring training, which ended Monday when his new club and old club played to a 6-6 tie, Soto sees a deep squad.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Soto said. “I think we have a really talented group… we are really a loaded as a team. Can’t wait to see these guys that are going out there.

“Definitely we had to go through some adversities in spring training, deal with some injuries and stuff like that, but I think we’re gonna be fine.”

Earlier in the spring, Soto said he was looking to improve his defense, an area he struggled with in the past, especially at times last year with the Yankees. The slugger said that after working with Antoan Richardson the two “did a really good job” in improving in right field.

“We worked on a lot of things,” Soto said, “we work in our mechanics go to the balls and everything, definitely feel more faster in the outfield like taking better jumps to the balls and getting to the balls quicker.

“So I'm really happy with what we did through spring training. In that way, I feel like we did a really good job, so now we just gotta go out there and perform.”

A.J. Minter ready for regular season workload

The veteran left-hander was “happy” with how he responded after throwing on just one day of rest in the Mets’ final outing of the spring.

“Continued to throw strikes today and, I think, we've finally checked that last box,” Minter said after a two-strikeout inning in which he threw 16 strikes out of 20 pitches, but did allow a solo home run. “Hopefully, show up these next few days if, obviously something sore comes up. I think we checked all the boxes we need to check.”

A hip injury that required surgery limited Minter to just 39 games and 34.1 innings a year ago, but he believes that he’s ready for a regular season workload.

Of course, the lefty said that he needs more repetitions “more than anything."

“I need to just keep throwing,” he said. “Like every outing I go out there, I feel like I get more and more confident. So, I'm really happy.”

The 31-year-old who spent the first eight years of his big league career in Atlanta said the goal of the entire offseason was to be ready for Opening Day.

“I think it was gonna come down to, literally, today, the last day to make that decision, because you never want to go into the season just not feeling confident, but also just not to rush back an injury,” he said, before adding that he “kind of shocked” himself with his progress even knowing how hard he worked during the offseason to make sure he was ready for the start of the season.

Minter is still ramping up the velocity – his average velocity on the fastball and cutter was down a touch in Monday's outing - but they will tick up as the season starts and he threw those pitches in addition to his changeup the way he wanted to this spring.

"Definitely got some good usage," he said.