There's no guarantee that Juan Soto will be able to keep up his insane hot streak that we're currently watching. After all, very few batters are capable of batting .523 for a prolonged stretch of time, but that's what Soto has done in his last dozen games. Even fewer batters can hit .800 for even a brief stretch, and that's what Soto has done in his last three.
But Juan Soto isn't like most other batters, seeing as he is only 22 years old and has already logged some of the best offensive seasons we've seen of this millennium, and his entire month of September has been one ridiculous, torrid stretch of pure and utter domination.
On Thursday night, Soto went 3-3 with two home runs and a walk. On Wednesday night, Soto went 3-3 with one home run and two walks. Seven times this month, he's had multi-walk games. 11 times this month, he's had multi-hit games. He's slashing an otherworldly .473/.608/.838 in 22 games this September. He's added 26 walks to his total, giving him a league-high 131 on the season and contributing to his ridiculous league-high .470 OBP, which is actually down from his league-high .490 figure in the shortened 2020 season.
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It's honestly difficult to put into words just how productive his month of September has been so far... so let's let some stats do the talking. Here's the full list of players with 25 walks and a .600 OPS in the month of September in MLB history: Barry Bonds and Juan Soto. And if you add all the other months into the year, the list doesn't get all that much longer (via Stathead):
| Rk | I | Player | Split | G | HR | BB | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barry Bonds | April/March | 23 | 10 | 39 | .472 | .696 | 1.132 | |
| 2 | Barry Bonds | Sept/Oct | 27 | 16 | 38 | .403 | .607 | 1.078 | |
| 3 | Barry Bonds | August | 27 | 11 | 38 | .414 | .615 | 1.000 | |
| 4 | Babe Ruth | July | 34 | 13 | 43 | .440 | .614 | .970 | |
| 5 | Barry Bonds | August | 27 | 11 | 37 | .447 | .621 | .961 | |
| 6 | Juan Soto | Sept/Oct | 22 | 7 | 26 | .473 | .608 | .838 | |
| 7 | Barry Bonds | April/March | 24 | 8 | 32 | .375 | .600 | .828 | |
| 8 | Barry Bonds | Sept/Oct | 28 | 7 | 47 | .333 | .619 | .773 | |
| 9 | Jason Giambi | June | 25 | 5 | 30 | .450 | .604 | .775 | |
| 10 | Barry Bonds | June | 26 | 7 | 40 | .371 | .604 | .757 | |
| 11 | Barry Bonds | Sept/Oct | 25 | 6 | 43 | .362 | .614 | .681 | |
| 12 | Barry Bonds | June | 27 | 6 | 46 | .328 | .612 | .657 | |
| 13 | Mickey Mantle | April/March | 15 | 2 | 25 | .359 | .606 | .590 |
By my count, there are 10 month-long performances on that list from known steroid users, two from the game's undisputed all-time legends and one from this year's Juan Soto. What's more is that the month of September still has a good amount of time left, and Soto is at his absolute hottest right now. How much more can he possibly add to his total? The sky's the limit.
Entering Thursday, Soto's odds to win the NL MVP Award were at +1000 on FanDuel Sportsbook. Entering Friday, he remains in third place behind Bryce Harper (-220) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (+240)... but he has trimmed a significant amount of doubt off of handicappers' projections, going all the way down to +440. With some more 3-3 games filled with walks and home runs — and why would he stop now? — we'll see if he can mount a surge in the final week of regular season action and join 1970 Johnny Bench, 2015 Bryce Harper and others as a 22-year-old MVP winner.
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