Though he’s still adjusting to the fact that he’s not seeing many fastballs at all at the start of his second major league campaign, after his breakout 2018, Juan Soto is quietly getting his hits and heating up as the 2019 season rolls along.
Among qualified National League hitters, Soto was seeing the lowest percentage of fastballs, just 43% through 23 games after Wednesday, something the 20-year-old outfielder and the Nationals’ hitting coach Kevin Long expected coming in, but is still difficult to adjust to.
Considering the fact that he hit .386 with 15 of 22 home runs on fastballs last season as a rookie, opposing pitchers weren’t going to keep feeding him heaters.