For Soto, baseball is 'always' on the brain

If there is a correlation between production and a player’s passion for the sport, then it is no surprise Juan Soto is dominating baseball.

“I really love the game,” he said on Friday.

The 22-year-old slugger beams when he talks about hitting and how he tries to help the Nationals in every at-bat. The happiness also is evident when Soto discusses stealing bases and making defensive plays in right field. He feeds off the energy from the crowd in each of those moments.

“I try to relax sometimes and just rest a little bit, go out, talk with my family, but [baseball] is always coming to my mind,” Soto said.

Soto’s exceptional talents stay on the minds of baseball fans, too. He made his mark in the 2019 World Series before he turned 21, became the youngest player to win the National League batting title last season, is shattering projections this year and a case is already being made for his eventual Cooperstown candidacy.

With each mark Soto sets, he seems to draw another comparison. The fact that only Mike Trout, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb had a higher OPS+ than him through their age-21 seasons is just one example of the company he is in -- repeatedly.

For as much as Soto stays off social media and tries to block out chatter that could distract him from the game, some references to baseball’s greats are hard to ignore.

“When they compared me with a legend like that, like Ted Williams, that’s when I opened my eyes and I was like, 'Wow, that was a really good one,'” he said. “That was the one who was opening my eyes. … When I started looking at his numbers and everything and you see what he got done, it’s just amazing. To be in the leagues with him, it’s just great to be out there and I feel really proud of myself. But like I said, I just try to forget about it and keep playing my baseball, my game.”

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Soto doesn’t focus on what he has accomplished in just three years in the Majors -- he looks ahead to how he can improve. This year in Grapefruit League action, he has been honing in on seeing the ball well and staying through the middle. He also has been continuing to work on drawing walks, and he considers his 11-pitch at-bat against Marlins starter Sixto Sánchez on Thursday as one of his best this spring.

The way Soto views it, he’s seen future Hall of Famers still trying to learn, and he wants to do the same. Discovering even more about the sport he loves adds to the fun of playing it.

“I’m the kind of guy that can learn from a kid, [I] can learn from an old man, I don’t mind,” Soto said. “I just look at it that way because I like to learn a lot of new things every day.”