Yankees announcer rips Mets' Juan Soto over 'tone-deaf' comments

Soto signed a 15-year, $765M contract that could reportedly exceed $800M total to join the Mets this past offseason, and seemingly was having some fun while speaking about the All-Star Game snub. Nevertheless, New York Yankees announcer Michael Kay thinks Soto should've handled questions about his All-Star Game status differently. 

"Talk about being tone deaf," Kay said during Wednesday's edition of "The Michael Kay Show," per Awful Announcing's Reice Shipley. "Come on, Juan. The last I looked, you are making a smidge under $47M this season. And you are upset that you aren’t making the All-Star Game because of an All-Star bonus you have in your contract? Do you know how bad that looks that you said that? Even if you thought it, fine. What kind of expenditures do you have? I don’t even know what the bonus is." 

According to Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News, Soto would've earned a $100,000 bonus if he made the All-Star Game roster. Soto added while speaking with reporters that he realizes "there’s a lot of players out there that have great numbers and deserve to be" part of the NL squad. 

After a rough start to the campaign, Soto has produced All-Star-caliber numbers since the end of May. According to Baseball Reference, he slashed .336/.473/.697 with a 1.171 OPS, 13 home runs and 26 RBI over 35 games played from May 31 through July 8. For the season, his batting line was .269/.399/.509/.908 with 21 homers and 52 RBI heading into Thursday's MLB action. 

Kay covered Soto last season as the slugger helped the Yankees reach the 2024 World Series. That was before Soto accepted the better financial offer and left the Yankees for the Mets this past December. 

"I thought that it was some [artificial intelligence] nonsense," Kay added about Soto's comment. "I said, 'There is no way that he said that. There is no way that someone I know, that is a smart dude and is represented by one of the smartest people I have ever met in the business, (agent) Scott Boras, would ever say something like that.'"

Kay generated headlines earlier this season when he reported that Soto was "very, very glum around" the Mets' clubhouse amid his spring struggles at the plate. One wonders if Soto will respond to Kay's latest rant now that the big-money star is having more "fun" with the Mets heading into the All-Star break.