PORT ST. LUCIE — Juan Soto is moving across the field.
After spending most of his career as a right fielder, the Mets franchise player has agreed to begin playing left full-time, president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday.
Soto is slated to play left field for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. It led to conversations between Soto and manager Carlos Mendoza about a switch to left field for the Mets, according to Stearns.
“It made sense for us from a roster perspective so we’re going to go forward with everyone on board with it,” Stearns said. “It’s not something we really contemplated coming into the offseason, but as we had conversations over the last month it made sense.”
With Soto in left field and Luis Robert Jr. in center, right field is now the unclaimed outfield position. Candidates for the spot include Carson Benge, the organization’s top prospect among position players, Brett Baty and MJ Melendez, who was signed to a major league contract on Sunday.
Soto has considerable left field experience — he last played there regularly with the Padres in 2023. He was also the starting left fielder for the Nationals in his first two major league seasons. All told, he’s appeared in 460 games as a left fielder and 603 in right field.
