Trouble in paradise for Braves’ rival and $765 million star?

It rightfully ticked off Mets fans. Hell, it would tick a lot of Braves fans off as well. Plenty in Queens let their frustrations be heard:

“Juan Soto obviously should have hustled here. Not sure what he was thinking,” Ben Yoel wrote on X.

“How the f–k do you not hustle here? Thats terrible,” Jomboy’s Jack Oliver wrote.

“Soto is playing so lackadaisically right now and I don’t get it. No shuffle. No intensity. Jogging out of the box in the 8th inning of a tie game, laughing with the Yankees players etc.,” Mets Avenue wrote.

“Why did juan soto not hustle there my god,” X user @krissyy_elyse wrote.

“Soto’s hustle has been absolutely horrible this weekend,” wrote @MaddlxDJ64.

From that point on, it exploded into an episode of TMZ between the Mets, Yankees, reporters, media personalities, and fans. Stuff like Juan Soto takes his own plane instead of riding the team plane, and that he didn’t want to leave the Yankees, but his family made him.

Soto only went 1-for-10 in the weekend series against the Yankees, and it’s sparked some pretty outrageous takes about how he’s struggling — both on and off the field — with this transition to the Mets.

But even as a Braves fan, I can’t, in good conscience, peddle that nonsense. The guy still has a 134 OPS+, which is 34% above league average. That’s obviously well below his career average of 159, but we are not even 50 games into a 15-year contract. It’s probably not time to sound the alarm bells just yet, even if I would love to see it all come crashing down so soon.

The problem is, no matter how good Soto is, there’s really no way he can ever live up to that $765 million contract. Everything he does is going to be under a microscope because he scorned the Yankees for their cross-town rivals in what some might describe as a sellout move.

The drama is only beginning in New York. For Braves Country, this is just popcorn and entertainment.