Juan Soto’s “back to normal”.

Juan Soto’s offensive numbers have finally started to rise. After a month of April to forget in which he had some of the worst offensive numbers of his career, “La Fiera” has begun to show signs that he is getting back on track, however, it is still too early to say that we are seeing the Juan Soto of previous seasons.

When analyzing Juan Soto’s last few weeks in detail, it is noticeable that he has had a staggered increase in his offensive production. In fact, in his last seven games, he has hit for a .360 average, with an on-base percentage (OBP) of .529 and a slugging percentage (SLG) of .640, good for a 1.169 OPS. He has hit only one home run, but his slugging percentage has been .640. He has hit only one home run, but four of his nine hits down the stretch have been doubles.

Soto’s problem in the first month of the season was based mostly on the amount of rolling he was producing. Through the last week of April, about 59% of the Dominican’s contact had turned into runs, leaving him with only six hits in 33 innings, none of which turned into a multi-base hit.

In addition, perhaps because of the pressure to produce in the face of the complicated offensive situation, Soto has been taking an unusual number of swings in which he has fanned. Of the 615 pitches he’s seen on the season, the San Diego Padres outfielder has fanned 26.4 percent of them, the highest number of his career thus far.

However, it’s important to note that he continues to maintain great strike zone control, which has led MLB in transfers received with 31.

Right now, Soto is batting .227 with an OPS of .824 and an OPS+ of 133. If he can continue to consistently make the adjustments he has been making over the last 15 days, but especially in the last week, we will likely see a return to the player of previous seasons, but with such a small sample size, it would be hasty to say he is back.

The success Soto has had in recent weeks is because, contrary to earlier in the season, the Padres have been using him more frequently as a third baseman and the difference between what he can do there and what he was doing as a second baseman is abysmal.

Batting second base (12 games) Soto has a .091 average with a .427 OPS, fifteen strikeouts and nine walks. As a third baseman (20 games), he is batting .318 with a 1.080 OPS, 22 transfers and 18 strikeouts. His power numbers also change drastically, as a second baseman he has a solo home run and a double, which gives a good idea why his SLG is .182, while when batting third in the lineup, he has connected for six doubles and four home runs, raising his SLG to .591.