Mets’ Juan Soto vows to ‘come back stronger’ after shocking All-Star Game snub

The reserves and pitchers for this year’s All-Star Game were announced on Sunday night. 

Francisco Lindor was already set to represent the organization for the first time in his Mets career after being selected as the NL’s starting shortstop via fan voting. 

Now he’ll have two teammates joining him -- Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz. 

Surprisingly not on that list is Juan Soto, who has been widely regarded as one of the biggest snubs heading into this year’s event. 

Instead, we’ll see Miami’s Kyle Stowers, Arizona’s Corbin Carroll, Washington’s James Wood, and San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. serve as the NL’s outfield reserves next week in Atlanta. 

This snaps a four-year stretch in which Soto has participated in All-Star festivities. 

“Sometimes you’re going to make it and sometimes you don’t, that’s just part of baseball,” he told Dan Martin of the New York Post. “It looks like I didn’t [do enough this year]. I’ve just got to be better.”

Soto started his Mets career on a bit of a low note based on his incredibly high standards, but of late he’s been making a strong case for the honors. 

The big-money outfielder was particularly locked in during June -- securing the NL Player of the Month after slashing an incredible .322/.474/.722 with 11 home runs, 20 RBI, 25 walks, and 25 runs scored. 

His 11 homers tied the most he’s hit in a single month. He also joined Darryl Strawberry as just the second player in franchise history with 10-plus home runs and 20-plus walks in a calendar month.

Soto’s been able to carry that success over to the first few days of July -- he now finds himself 10th in baseball with 21 long balls, he’s driven in 52 runs, and is up to a much more respectable .904 OPS on the season.

Still, it appears his mid-season turnaround won’t be enough this year. 

“Everyone wants to be an All-Star and live the experience of being there,” he said. “I was glad I was able to be there four years in a row, if I didn’t make it this year, it’s no big deal. I’ll come back stronger next year.”