"Any other time, Juan Soto is absolutely NL MVP" - Justin Verlander's brother gives major reason Mets superstar won't win the award in 2025

Mets superstar Juan Soto has finally broken out for the team after his $765 move in the winter. After struggling out of the gate, the outfield star has looked like his prime self once more and has been mentioned in the National League MVP conversations as of late. Soto is currently batting .261 with an OPS of .924, 38 home runs, 93 runs batted in, and 29 stolen bases.

In spite of the Soto's brilliance, however, is an impossible task of outperforming the best player in the league today. In the most recent episode of Ben Verlander's Flippin' Bats podcast, Justin's brother discussed how historic Juan Soto's season has been and how it would have been a sure fire NL MVP win, if not for Ohtani's presence in the league.

"Any other time, Juan Soto is absolutely NL MVP...but not when Shohei Ohtani exists," said Verlander. (13:19-13:24)

He would go on to elaborate on this thought that even though Juan Soto has posted magnanimous numbers, he will not be able to step out of the shadow of the three-time MVP in Ohtani.

"I think Soto is absolutely in this MVP conversation right now and I think [he will] absolutely win Most Valuable Player, if Shohei Ohtani wasn't playing baseball...[Ohtani] is back on the mound, he is playing well, and it's not just because he's pitching as well." (12:59-13:49)

"Soto is now third in offensive value in the National League, just behind Kyle Schwarber. He has skyrocketed to the top of the list with 39.2 ... [But he's] still way below the leader in the NL in offensive value in Shohei Ohtani at 51. When it just comes to offensive value, there's nobody in the National League close to Shohei Ohtani." (13:50-14:20)

Juan Soto's late homer falls flat as Mets fall in Cincinnati

Juan Soto's 38th home run of the season was all for naught as the Mets lost 3-2 against a defiant Reds side in Cincinnati, Sunday afternoon. The outfield star smashed a solo bomb to deep right center off Reds reliever Tony Santillan but it wasn't enough as a kerfuffle on the bases involving Starling Marte with two men on base ended the contest.

Brett Baty provided the only other score for the visiting Mets with a solo shot of his own on the third while the Reds generated sparing runs from Austin Hays' sacrifice fly in the fourth and RBI single in the sixth combined with Elly De La Cruz's RBI double in the latter frame.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago