Juan Soto addresses if he's pressing amid slow start to Mets tenure

Both New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and manager Carlos Mendoza recently revealed they weren't worried about outfielder Juan Soto amid Soto's slow start to his Mets tenure. 

Soto then showed signs of breaking out of his springtime swoon when he hit a pair of home runs in New York's 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday afternoon. 

Following that defeat, Soto insisted he hasn't been pressing at the plate for reasons related to the 15-year, $765M contract that could exceed $800M he signed to complete a move from the New York Yankees to the Mets this past offseason. 

"What pressure? I don’t have any pressure," Soto said, as shared by Alex Smith of SNY. "Mendoza has been really clear with me to make me feel comfortable and going out there to play. I don’t have any pressure at all, so it’s just two homers that weren’t enough to get the win."

Soto entered Friday slashing .252/.379/.443 with an .822 OPS, five home runs and 14 RBI on the season. Those aren't awful numbers, but they only tell part of the story about how out of sorts he sometimes has appeared at the plate. 

His "Soto Shuffle" has largely gone missing with the Mets. He hadn't homered since April 15 before he twice went deep versus the Diamondbacks. Fair or not, the 26-year-old also raised some eyebrows when he suggested in April that he missed sharing a lineup with Yankees captain Aaron Judge. 

"Part of greatness is a period of time that is the franchise player adjustment," agent Scott Boras said about Soto for a piece produced by Joel Sherman of the New York Post that was published on Thursday night. 

Following the loss that dropped the first-place Mets to 21-11 on the season, Soto seemed to want to focus on all that's gone well for the team since Opening Day. 

"I feel like we’ve been doing a really good job," Soto added during his comments. "We gotta give credit to our bullpen and the starting pitching — they’ve been great. ...Look where we’re at. We just gotta keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing since Day 1. Try to get on, get them over, get them in. That’s all we gotta do."

Perhaps Thursday will be remembered as the day Soto began feeling more like his All-Star self in a Mets uniform. If that proves to be the case, the Amazins could produce quite a fun summer for a fan base that last celebrated a World Series championship in 1986.