Perhaps his defense is not spectacular and he doesn’t steal 30 bases per season.
However, every young kid dreams of having the kind of career San Diego Padres slugger Juan Soto is having.
His plate discipline is unmatched in the league, he has 30-homer power, and he has the ability to hit .300 any given season.
He has it all when it comes to hitting, and he also knows what it’s like to win a World Series.
Young kids even imitate his batting stance.
Allow us to correct ourselves: it’s not just young kids.
“Stand like Juan Soto, hit like Juan Soto? No. 18 #RedSox prospect Enmanuel Valdez rips a Grapefruit League homer from a familiar batting stance,” Minor League Baseball tweeted.
Stand like Juan Soto, hit like Juan Soto?
No. 18 #RedSox prospect Enmanuel Valdez rips a Grapefruit League homer from a familiar batting stance: pic.twitter.com/MqmXuzPZDO
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) March 1, 2023
Valdez spent the vast majority of his career with the Houston Astros organization, but he landed on the Boston Red Sox last season.
He is a power-hitting, 24-year-old infielder with a chance to carve out an MLB career.
He was a 20-year-old minor leaguer in High-A when the Astros played the Washington Nationals in the World Series, in 2019.
In that series, Soto had a lot of series-altering hits, and Valdez surely was a witness to his greatness.
We would say he is intentionally imitating Soto’s stance, because they look very, very similar.
That stance allows Soto to quickly, suddenly explode towards the ball and generate a lot of power, which is what Valdez did in his home run.
If he can be 60 percent of the player Soto is, he will be in the majors for a long time.
He hit 28 home runs last year across three levels, so time will tell.
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