MLB stars reach very telling opinion of Juan Soto compared to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani

New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto was named ahead of both Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani in an anonymous players poll of who pitchers would fear most in a World Series Game 7

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Free-agent signing Juan Soto is not off to as prodigal a start to the 2025 season as his old teammate Aaron Judge is with the New York Yankees or 2024 National League MVP Shohei Ohtani is with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Still, MLB pitchers voted Soto as the batter they'd least like to face in Game 7 of the World Series in a recent anonymous players' poll published by The Athletic. The polling was narrow: Soto received 10 of 64 votes (15.6%) compared to nine of 64 for Ohtani (14%) and six of 64 for Judge (9.3%).

Players left anonymous descriptions attached to their feedback, and many cited Soto's elite plate discipline as a reason for listing him.

“His ability to have plate discipline, no whiff and power is really, really difficult to face," one said. "There aren’t many guys who have the power to hit like that but not the whiff. He hits mistakes every time. He doesn’t chase.”

“He has amazing control of the strike zone," another commented. "You know he’s probably not going to chase. He also has insane power and can hit the ball to all fields. He’s such a tough out.”

Soto walked 14 times in 14 playoff games last season with the New York Yankees as he helped power the team to their first World Series appearance since 2009.

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The Dominican outfielder produced a tidy .327/.469/.633 (1.101 OPS) slash line with four home runs along the way, including a go-ahead round-tripper in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians.

His playoff production dramatically trumps that of his rivals. Ohtani only appeared in October baseball last year for the first time in his MLB career after toiling with the hapless Los Angeles Angels from 2018 to 2023.

The Japanese designated hitter was good not great: his 1.159 regular season OPS that helped him capture the 2024 NL MVP award dropped to .767 in the playoffs.

Judge is known as one of the greatest playoff underachievers in recent memory. In 58 career postseason games, the Yankees masher is hitting just .205 with a .768 OPS.

2022 was a particularly egregious playoff campaign for Judge. After setting the American League regular season home run record with 62 to unanimously capture the MVP award, his OPS dropped from 1.111 to .490 in the postseason.