La Vida Baseball

Start of Soto’s career ranks among Latino legends

By Tab Bamford

Juan Soto came up with the biggest hit of his career Tuesday night. He’s been coming up big a lot the last two years.
Soto has started building a resume for the ages.

The Nationals outfielder doesn’t turn 21 until Oct. 25, but he already produced at a level that has rarely been seen.

Only three natives of the Dominican have reached 500 total bases before their 21st birthday: César Cedeño, Adrián Beltré and Soto. Here is the complete list of Latinos who reached 500 total bases before their 21st birthday (with games played):

  1. Alex Rodriguez – 739 (352)
  2. César Cedeño – 703 (390)
  3. Ted Williams – 677 (293)
  4. Orlando Cepeda – 625 (299)
  5. Ronald Acuña Jr. – 563 (267)*
  6. Edgar Rentería – 559 (393)
  7. Adrián Beltré – 544 (367)
  8. Manny Machado – 514 (289)
  9. Andruw Jones – 513 (343)
  10. Juan Soto – 511 (266)*
    * – active players

Beltré (7.4), Soto (7.6) and Cedeño (11.7) are also are the only Dominicans to reach 7.0 WAR before their 21st birthday (according to BaseballReference).

Only two Dominicans reached 180 RBI before their 21st birthday: Cedeño (205) and Soto (180).

Only 27 players in history collected at least 119 extra-base hits before turning 21. Soto has the same number of extra-base hits before his 21st birthday (119) that Hall of Famer Hank Aaron produced. The only Latinos with more: ARod (170), Williams (166), Cedeño (157), Cepeda (133), Jones (122) and Acuña (121).

Featured Image: Juan Soto Instagram