After signing a 15-year, $765 million contract this offseason with the New York Mets, star outfielder Juan Soto had another number in mind.
He wanted to keep wearing No. 22, but Mets third baseman Brett Baty already had those digits.
Soto thanked Baty for switching to No. 7 with a surprise on Thursday, gifting him a 2025 Chevy Tahoe at the team’s spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The SUV’s rear window was painted with “Thanks for No. 22,” and even had a big red ribbon on the hood like in television commercials.
“It’s all yours,” Soto, 26, told Baty in a video of the presentation posted on the Mets’ social media accounts. “You can drive it and everything.”
Baty, 25, hugged and thanked Soto.
“I really appreciate the number,” Soto told Baty in the video. “It’s the first one I ever wore.”
The exchange follows a history in professional sports of star players rewarding a new teammate for giving up his jersey number. For example, when superstar Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December 2023, he delivered a new Porsche to pitcher Joe Kelly and his wife, Ashley, for giving up No. 17.
Soto batted .288 last year with 41 home runs, 109 RBIs and an American League-leading 128 runs scored in 157 regular-season games in his lone season with the New York Yankees. He also batted .327 with four homers and nine RBIs in 14 playoff games in helping the Yankees reach the World Series against the eventual champion Dodgers.
For his career, Soto is a .285 hitter with 201 homers, 592 RBIs, a .532 slugging percentage and a .421 on-base percentage which leads all active major leaguers. He has played 936 regular-season games for the Washington Nationals (2018-22) — winning the World Series in 2019 — San Diego Padres (2022-23) and Yankees.
The Mets selected Baty 12th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft. He batted .229 last season with four home runs and 16 RBIs in 50 games. He is a career .215 hitter with 15 homers and 55 RBIs in 169 games over parts of three seasons (2022-24). He is due to earn a reported $800,000 in 2025.
–Field Level Media
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