Juan Soto has been a favorite for MVP honors throughout his 2024 MLB season with the New York Yankees, and an MLB legend recently highlighted an aspect of his game that resembles that of one of the greatest hitters of all time.
Soto is rounding out the current season in a great way. The Dominican superstar is posting batting averages of .304/.429/.589 and an incredible OPS of 1.018. After hitting 30 home runs into the stands this year, Soto has once again proven that he is one of the game’s best hitters in terms of both his power and average. This top-notch play caught the attention of former Philadelphia Phillies legend Jimmy Rollins, who couldn’t help but mention the seven-year veteran in the same breath as former San Francisco Giants superstar Barry Bonds.
Jimmy Rollins compares the consistency of Yankees’ Juan Soto at bat with that of Barry Bonds
In a recent episode of The 6-1-1 Podcast, Rollins said Soto’s ability to limit his strikes and misses reminds him most of Bonds (h/t Raghav Mehta of Sportskeeda):
“If I could come back today as a hitter, I’d probably be Juan Soto. He never misses. He’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to Barry Bonds,” Rollins enthused.
“He can hit you anywhere. He doesn’t swing and miss. When he swings, he rarely misses. I remember Barry went through a season where he played 20 games in a row before swinging and missing, but when he did swing, his decision was apparently the right one. That’s what I see with Juan Soto.”
Is Soto in any way comparable to Bonds at the plate?
Rollins came in primarily from a consistency perspective. Bonds was praised for his efficiency as much as his power over the course of his 22-year major league career. The MLB all-time homer hitter hung up his boots with a career batting average of .298. Currently, Soto comes close to that with a career average of .287.
Bonds was also the most feared hitter in baseball for several stretches of his career, leading the major leagues in walks 12 times, showing how problematic he was for opposing pitchers. Soto has already outperformed his contemporaries in that category for three consecutive seasons from 2021-2023 and is three walks behind the league leader this season. That parallel screams Bonds. It also shows that Soto is respected when he steps up to bat.
It’s one thing to generate walks consistently. It’s another thing to maintain that reputation through connectivity on throws, and quite another to translate that into wins. Soto’s stuff looks like something out of a video game. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound talent is in the 99th percentile or better on most of his hitting peripherals, including chase percentage (17.8 percent). The four-time Silver Slugger Award winner also has a 15.5 percent strikeout percentage, which puts him in the 84th percentile, and misses just 21.8 percent of the time. Soto shows discipline on a variety of throws and, more often than not, knows what to strike at.
Additionally, the former 2019 World Series champion has been exceptional in his career in terms of the number of wins above replacements. He led the National League in 2021 with a WAR of 7.1, and his WAR of 6.9 this year isn’t far off the American League leaders. Bonds took the crown in that category a whopping 11 times in his professional career. Soto may need to do some work to match that otherworldly total, but he’s made a big impression on every team he’s played on so far, and his bat can help him win another World Series crown this fall.
Overall, Soto is extremely efficient. He is frighteningly powerful. The Yankees’ prized outfielder may not hit 73 home runs in the future (or maybe he will) like Bonds did in 2001, but his track record backs up Rollins’ assessment. He delivers at the plate, and when he swings his bat, he doesn’t hit empty ground, but hits enough balls to have his name mentioned alongside one of the best players to ever do it.
