Juan Soto

All's well that ends well? Soto was hitting .202 with five homers and 11 RBI as the calendar flipped to May, making many fantasy managers rather nervous watching their first round foundational pick get off to such a poor start. Soto went on to turn things around, hitting 30 homers, driving in 98, and hitting .290 for the rest of the season to finish as the 16th most valuable fantasy player in our standard rankings. He was one of three qualified hitters with more walks than strikeouts in 2023 and has still not fallen below the .400 mark for a season on-base percentage in his entire career. The batting average has taken a tumble since the 2020-2021 season but the volume is still in place for the other statistics. After getting traded to the Yankees for his final year before free agency, Soto will gain a massive home-park power boost, as Yankee Stadium rates as the second best park for lefty power, per Baseball Savant's park factors, while San Diego rated as the fifth-worst such park. There will be immense pressure on him to produce in pinstripes as his free agency looms next winter.

Baseball is an incredibly difficult game, and even players with Hall of Fame skill sets will struggle for stretches. At the end of June, Soto was batting just .224. It leaked in the media that Soto had turned down the Nationals' 15-year, $440 million offer, setting the stage for a blockbuster trade that sent Soto out West for an all-time prospect haul. Batting average, as we know, has its limitations, and in Soto's case his .242 season mark is downright misleading. He still hit the ball with incredible authority and chased pitches outside of the zone at a lower rate than anyone. The Padres did not run much last season under manager Bob Melvin, but everything else sets up well for a big-time rebound in Soto's first full season in San Diego.

Soto, at 23 years old, is already arguably the best hitter in baseball. He has put up the type of stats from ages 19-22 that we expect to see from players in their prime years of 25-28, and a .301/.432/.550 career slash line is cheat-code worthy. He has improved his walk rate every year in the majors and has reduced his strikeout rate so much so that he has nearly a 50-50 chance to reach base every time he steps to the plate. A repeat of 110-plus runs should not be too much of a problem for him although there are more question marks than answers in the Nationals' current projected lineup. A rebound season from Cesar Hernandez and another solid Josh Bell season should lead to RBI chances for Soto, but the lack of talent behind him in the lineup could lead to more of what we saw after the trade deadline when the league walked Soto 29% of the time as he posted a .333/.525/.578 slash line.

Already a fantasy first-rounder before his 22nd birthday, Soto's 2020 exploits cemented him as a top-five pick, just a handful of steals away from No. 1 overall consideration. His biggest fans will take him there regardless. Soto's .351/.490/.695 slash line is even more remarkable considering he had a positive COVID-19 test the last week of summer camp and missed the first eight games of the season, catching a break that some of the Nationals' schedule was postponed in early August. The scary thing is Soto's production is fully supported by most Statcast metrics falling 90th percentile and higher. The exception is sprint speed, but he's a heady runner so maintaining double-digit steals is plausible. With an advanced eye, Soto is even better for OBP and points leagues, though some of his walk rate emanated from the Barry Bonds treatment in September. Even with batted-ball regression, Soto is a Triple Crown candidate.

Given what we saw from Soto at ages 19 and 20, it seems reasonable to say a Hall of Fame foundation is being laid. Soto was a top-12 rate contributor in the game by wRC+ in 2019, and he continued to shine on the biggest stage with a .277/.373/.554 line and five homers in the postseason. His K% and BB% were nearly identical to his marks from 2018 at 20.0% and 16.4%, respectively, and his xSLG, xwOBA and xwOBA on contact all ranked within the top 5% of the league. Soto also chipped in 12 steals in just 13 attempts. With that, he finished as the No. 13 roto hitter despite making a trip to the IL in May with back spasms. This profile is truly special and there aren't really any holes in his game. Not having Anthony Rendon ahead of him to drive in may hurt Soto's RBI count and we should probably expect a return to single-digit steals, but regardless the bat is good enough to warrant a first-round pick.

Simply put, Soto had one of the best seasons for a teenager of all time. His talent has never been in question, but the fact he even made his debut in 2018 came as a huge surprise considering he opened the year at Low-A. Soto arrived in the majors May 20 and made an immediate impact, homering in his first career start. He never looked back after that, posting a stellar .923 OPS and missing out on the Rookie of the Year award only because of an equally impressive season from Ronald Acuna. Among MLB hitters with at least 450 PA, Soto ranked sixth in BB% (16.0), 10th in wRC+ (146) and 12th in BB/K (0.80). Again, he was 19 when he did this. He handled righties (152 wRC+) and lefties (128 wRC+) just fine, so don't worry about a platoon. The loss of Bryce Harper may cost him some RBI and runs, but it also likely locks him in as the cleanup hitter indefinitely.

A fractured right ankle, hamate bone surgery and hamstring strain combined to limit one of the game's most exciting young prospects to just 32 games in 2017. That didn't stop him from reminding dynasty-league owners of his extreme upside when he was on the field. Soto's 172 wRC+ ranked third among Sally League hitters with at least 80 plate appearances. He walked more than he struck out, despite being the third youngest hitter to spend the majority of his season in that league. In addition to an elite approach and hit tool, Soto projects to provide 30-plus homer power in his prime seasons, but he won't generate much value with his legs. Given how advanced his bat is, it would not be surprising if he were aggressively assigned to the Carolina League after just 23 games at Low-A. The ankle and hamate injuries seem flukey, so while it's obviously concerning that he couldn't stay healthy in his first full season, it would be a mistake to discount him too much. All the tools are here for Soto to finish the season as a top-five prospect.

While he has not yet played above short-season ball, Soto made too much noise with his bat last year to qualify as an under-the-radar target in dynasty league drafts. He was seen as an advanced hitter with above-average power potential when the Nationals signed him out of the Dominican Republic for $1.5 million in 2015. So far, Soto has delivered on that promise and then some. He slashed .368/.420/.553 with five home runs, five steals and a 29:17 K:BB in 51 games across stops in the Gulf Coast and New York-Penn leagues, all before turning 18. It is quite rare for a player with the potential for plus power to be showing off an excellent approach and a plus hit tool against professional pitching at an age when most players are between their junior and senior years of high school. Soto should be valued similarly to the top prospects from the 2016 draft class and could follow the same aggressive promotion pattern as organizational mate Victor Robles.