Deep Dive Into The Newest Mets Reliever, Gregory Soto

On Friday, the New York Mets announced that they acquired left-handed reliever Gregory Soto from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for pitching prospects Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster. This was the first deal ahead of what projects to be a busy trade deadline for the Mets.

Soto, 30 years old, is in his seventh big-league season. After starting his major-league career with the Detroit Tigers, where he was named an All-Star twice and posted career seasons in 2021 and 2022, he was dealt midseason to Philadelphia. His time with the Phillies was turbulent, as he posted a 4.42 ERA across 95 2/3 innings in parts of two seasons. Soto was then dealt to the Baltimore Orioles in July of 2024, where he tossed 54 innings (4.33 ERA) before being dealt tt the Mets.

As mentioned, Soto’s best seasons came in 2021 and 2022 where he made the All-Star game in each season. In 2021, he posted a 3.39 ERA across 63 2/3 innings. He followed that up with a 3.28 ERA across 60 1/3 innings in 2022. On the surface, his play decreased in 2023 and 2024, after those All-Star seasons, as he posted a 4.62 ERA in 2023 and a 4.42 ERA in 2024. However, a deeper dive into those numbers paints a picture of some bad luck. His FIP across those two seasons sat at 3.59 and 3.68, respectively. Additionally, his 2.79 xERA in 2023 was the lowest figure of his career.

In 2025, Soto’s traditional numbers are much closer to his 2021 and 2022 seasons. Through 36 1/3 innings with Baltimore, Soto has posted a 3.96 ERA and 44 strikeouts allowing only 29 hits. His strikeout rate is the second-highest of his career and walk rate is the second-lowest of his career.

A deeper dive into the analytics this season paint an even more encouraging picture. Soto’s xERA (3.34), FIP (3.28), and xFIP (3.80) are all comfortably lower than his actual ERA, showing that Soto’s been deserving of better results than he has been getting. Specifically, he is generating a ton of whiffs (87th percentile) and avoiding barrels when contact is made (94th percentile) which is helping suppress hits (.216 xBA, 83rd percentile). Additionally, playing mainly in a ballpark that is very kind to pitchers in Citi Field (22nd in Baseball Savant’s “ballpark factor” rankings) compared to Camden Yards (10th in Baseball Savant’s “ballpark factor” rankings), should also help get the ERA closer to what the underlying metrics are saying Soto deserves.

As far as his pitch arsenal goes, Soto is mainly a sinker and slider pitcher. He has thrown the sinker almost 52% of the time this season and his slider nearly 36% of the time. His slider is elite as it has an .182 BA and a .192 xBA. The slider has a “Stuff+” rating of 113, which ranks 91st among 336 qualified pitchers. Meanwhile, hitters are only hitting .220 against his sinker, which averages 96.7 mph.

The Mets dearly needed another reliable left-handed arm in their bullpen as the route to a National League pennant would likely feature facing some of the best left-handed hitters in the game such as Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman. Soto’s splits against left-handed hitters, throughout his career, and this year specifically, are extremely strong. In his career, lefties are batting .206 with a .605 OPS against Soto. Meanwhile, in 2025, these figures are even stronger, as he has allowed an .138 batting average and .547 OPS to left-handed hitters.

With all that being said, the one area that Soto struggles, and really is the only area that has not allowed him to emerge as one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball, is his inconsistent control. Soto’s walk rate, despite being the second-best of his career, ranks in the league’s 10th percentile. His “Location+,” which is a pitch molding metric that basically weighs how often pitchers put their pitches in their desired location, is only 85 this season (average is 100). That figure is the eighth-lowest in the big leagues among 363 pitches to throw at least 30 innings this season.

Soto should compliment Brooks Raley well as the two left-handed pitchers in the Mets’ bullpen. As mentioned, this role is going to be extremely important come playoff time, as New York will likely have to contend with some of the premier left-handed hitters in the big leagues. The only aspect of his game that would hold Soto back is his control. However, if he can reel that in, he has elite stuff, as he has been displaying all season long in one of the better seasons of his career.

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