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Blazing fastballs, monster swings, and one sleepy dribbler: Some 2025 Mets highlights

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💥 On the Mound

⚾️ 🔥 Ryne Stanek lights up the radar gun at 100.1 mph with a four-seam fastball on April 8. He was flaming that day—three more pitches touched 99.

⤵️ ⚾️ Kodai Senga floats in a 68.5 mph curveball on April 1. Sixteen of his pitches caused swings and misses—but not that slow breaker. It drifted outside for a ball.

💥 At the Plate

⚾️🔥 Pete Alonso drives one to right at 114.5 mph. He pulls up at second, lucky not to get a speeding ticket for the ball’s exit velocity. His bat was electric that day—he launched a 113.4 mph homer, ripped another double at 113.1, and even clobbered a lineout that jumped off the bat at 107.1.

⬇️ ⚾️ Francisco Lindor gets jammed and taps one at just 31.9 mph—an ultrasoft grounder—back to the pitcher. The throw to first beats him before his engine can even get up any steam.

⤴️⚾⤵️ Baseball’s a game of contrast with its missiles to dribblers and whiffs to weak contact, the only sport that swings so wide.

Data from Baseball Savant.

Pitchers Fear Juan Soto’s Bat

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Of the 37 pitches thrown so far to Juan Soto, 26 have been outside the strike zone with eight of them low and away and nine high and inside. That shows the respect pitchers have for Soto’s bat.

Of those 17 pitches, Soto swung at and missed just one. Unfortunately, that was the strikeout pitch that Josh Hader threw in the ninth inning of the Mets opening game.

In 2024 with the Yankees, Soto’s OBP against sliders was .344. That was the 16th highest OBP on Baseball Savant among all batters who had been thrown at least 400 sliders. The best in MLB was Aaron Judge (.416) and on the Mets — J. D. Martinez (.299). Pete Alonso’s OBP on sliders was just .214, sixth lowest, while the MLB average OBP was .276.

All the data is from Baseball Savant.

Juan Soto: Can He Break Mets OBP Record?

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Since 1962, only 13 Mets who have played in at least 100 games in a season have had an OBP of .400 or above. The first was Richie Ashburn in 1962. His .424 OBP was not topped until 36 years later when John Olerud had a .447 OBP, a number no other Met has come close to through 2024.

Mets top OBPs in a season

Mets Top OBPs

That might change this season. Juan Soto, one of only two active players with an OBP >= .400 over at least 100 games in six seasons — the other is Mike Trout — is now a Met. However, Soto exceeded Olerud’s .427 OBP just once when he reached .465 in 2021 with the Nationals. In his other five seasons, Soto’s highest OBP was .419, accomplished last season with the Yankees.

Active players with most seasons with OBP >= .400 & Games >= 100

Among the active Mets players besides Soto, only one had an OBP >= .400 in at least 100 games in a season, Brandon Nimmo doing it once, but that was seven years ago when his OBP was .404.

Justin Turner played for the Mets from 2010 through 2013. During those years, his highest OBP was .334. After the 2013 season, he became a free agent and signed with the Dodgers. In three of his season with them, he had an OBP over .400 three times, playing more than 100 games in each.

❓I’ve wondered why he couldn’t hit like that with the Mets.

The data in the tables is from Stathead Baseball.