Juan Soto was about to enter his final year of arbitration prior to hitting free agency for a San Diego ballclub that aimed to trim payroll while remaining competitive.
First things first: This is not going to stun any baseball fan who has kept up with the game in the past few years, but Soto's statistics at such a young age are downright cartoonish.
Now for some specifics. First, availability is an ability, and Soto has stayed on the field. Even excluding his sterling 2019 playoff run, he's played in 663 of 708 possible regular season games across the last five seasons, or 93.6 percent.
Next: the plate discipline. Oh, the plate discipline. It's not just that Soto has led the majors in walks three times through his age-24 season, though that is incredibly impressive. He's also walked more than he's struck out four consecutive years.
Soto also brings prodigious power to the dish for the Yankees. His 35 home runs last season were a new...
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