Juan Soto's tough-luck season continues with bizarre play

New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto. John Jones-Imagn Images

Watch: Juan Soto's tough-luck season continues with bizarre base-running play

By Adam Gretz | Last updated May 27, 2025 8:37 PM ET

Juan Soto's first season with the New York Mets has certainly had its share of ups and downs. While he has not played up to the expectations that come with a $750 million free-agency contract, there has been a significant element of tough luck to his performance over the first two months of the season.

That tough luck continued on Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox when a bizarre base-running blunder from Brandon Nimmo resulted in Soto being called out.

After Soto singled into the right center field gap in front of a diving Michael Taylor, Nimmo was under the assumption that the ball was caught and attempted to retreat back to first base. In the process of doing so, he allowed Soto to pass him on the bases, resulting in Soto being called out.

Juan Soto was called out after Brandon Nimmo passed him on the base paths on a hit that was trapped by Michael A. Taylor pic.twitter.com/SUgy5DuEbU
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 27, 2025

The worst part for Soto: He does not even get credit for a hit. After the official scorer officially ruled it a single, it was later changed to take away the hit and go in the scorebook as a lineout.

While Soto has had his play — and hustle — criticized this season, it's really hard to put this one on him too much. Nimmo and the third base coach have to do a better job in that situation to realize what the call on the field was (and it was very clearly no catch).

The good news for the Mets as a team, however, is that play did not ruin their inning. They followed that base-running gaffe with five consecutive hits, including a pair of two-run home runs from Pete Alonso and Jared Young.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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