find a way to have fun,” he says. “I used to throw the
ball in the air and just hammer it up the middle and run
around the bases, back and forth in the hallway. And I
remember thinking that was everything.”
Soto was invited to play in Dominican Prospect League
games at Fort Lauderdale Stadium in 2015. DiPuglia
already had Soto on his radar.
“First at bat, he hits a line drive off the wall in left
center,” DiPuglia says. “Second at bat, he takes a slider
in and hits it off the wall in right center.”
DiPuglia left his seat and approached Soto’s manager.
“Let me have him for a little while,” he said. DiPuglia
brought him to a decrepit batting tunnel where years ago
Yankees greats such as Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly
hit when the site was the team’s spring training home.
“There was a homeless guy in there,” DiPuglia says.
“I gave him 20 bucks to get out. It stunk like urine. It
was nasty. It was the only way I could get him alone for
my f inal report. We started doing f lips, just to reinforce
his barrel awareness and how he adjusts his hands to
different parts of the zone.”
Hearing the loud sounds of contact, two scouts for
the Diamondbacks scrambled to see who was swinging
the bat. They arrived to see DiPuglia shaking hands
with Soto and his agent, Cristian “Niche” Batista, on a
$1.5 million bonus.
“He hit the ball foul pole to foul pole without trying to
hit every ball out the way most kids do,” DiPuglia says.
“His eyes are ridiculous. You could tell he had good eyes
by the way the ball hits his barrel. A lot of guys, you pick
up their bat and you see ball marks up and down the
bat. This guy wore out the barrel. It was unbelievable.”The story of Clayton Kershaw in Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS
is so wild Soto must start with a disclaimer. “People are
going to think I’m lying,” he says, “but definitely yes, I
said to myself, I am going to hit a home run.”
The Dodgers are winning, 3–1, with two outs in the sixth
inning of another sudden-death game for Washington.
Enrique Hernández of Los Angeles pulls a curveball foul
into the left field seats. After giving the ball a brief chase,
Soto, playing left, peeks into the Dodgers’ bullpen behind
him. He sees Kershaw warming up.
“That’s when the mind games start going,” Soto says.
“I turned around to look at the bullpen, and Kershaw was
looking at me. He stopped his windup halfway when he
saw me. I don’t know if it was because he was trying to do
something, but he stopped halfway. I saw that and I was
like, He don’t want it. Well, I’ve got more confidence now.
“I start thinking, W hat has he been throwing you that
he’s been getting you out on every time? Sliders down and
away. So I was thinking I just have to get one up and hit
it to left center to tie the game. I said, ‘[Anthony] Rendon
is going to hit a double, and I am going to hit a homer to
left center to tie the game.’ ”
He is wrong. Slightly. Rendon hits a low fastball for a
homer. Kershaw, one of baseball’s best lefties, had thrown
Soto 10 pitches in the series: eight sliders, one curveball and
one fastball. Soto knows what is coming on the first pitch.
“I was like, Slider down and away. Hit it to left center,”SPORTS
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MAY 2022
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JUAN SOTO
WORLD SERIES GAME 1
Soto crushed Cole’s high fastball
417 feet for a “loud” home run.
The swing was “perfect-perfect.”WORLD SERIES GAME 6
Just before hitting this pitch for a
homer, Soto saw Verlander flinch
and knew what was coming next.