Nationals' Juan Soto, Mets' Tylor Megill put on a show on Opening Day
By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In another universe, a healthy Jacob deGrom and Stephen Strasburg faced off on a sunny Thursday afternoon for an Opening Day clash for the ages between two NL East foes.
We are not in that universe.
Instead, on a rainy night in the nation’s capital, these divisional rivals began their 2022 seasons heading in very different directions with vastly different expectations.
Instead of deGrom, the New York Mets handed the ball to a 6-foot-7 right-hander with 18 career major-league starts; his name is Tylor Megill.
Megill was the final Opening Day starter to be named across MLB, chosen after the Mets had to scramble following deGrom’s latest injury. While it was easy for neutral fans to point and laugh at the latest Mets misfortune and the relatively random name who stepped in, Megill quickly reminded everyone of what made him reasonably effective a year ago, when the team also relied on him as depth.
Sure, the "Cylor Megill" tweets are a tad optimistic, but the dude was pumping 97 mph by the Washington hitters rather casually all night en route to five scoreless innings.
On the other side, Patrick Corbin got the nod for Washington, making him the first non-Max Scherzer/non-Stephen Strasburg to start for the Nationals on Opening Day since Liván Hernández in 2011. With Scherzer in the other dugout and Strasburg on the injured list, Corbin was an obvious pick to get the ball.
Yet Corbin enters this season coming off a campaign in which he posted the highest ERA of any qualified starter in Major League Baseball — not exactly the profile of an arm you’d be ecstatic to trust atop your staff. Realistically, though, Corbin can’t possibly be that bad again.
If one thing became clear Thursday night, it’s that Nationals fans are still happy to soak in the afterglow of the 2019 World Series team, of which Corbin was a crucial member. The pandemic might’ve made 2019 feel like 30 years ago, rather than three, but these fans won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Sean Doolittle and Anibal Sanchez both returned to D.C. as free agents this winter and were welcomed back with some of the loudest ovations in pregame introductions. Realistically, though, the novelty of cheering on the heroes of the ‘19 squad is going to wear off eventually.
So if this Nationals season isn’t one big nostalgia trip, what is it going to be about?
Juan Soto, of course — on and off the field.
While his on-field performance and sensational statistics have enthralled the baseball world since his teenage debut in 2018, the focus in D.C. has now shifted to Soto’s long-term future. Can the organization extend him and make him a Nat for life?
They didn’t manage to do so before the season, though GM Mike Rizzo has made it no secret that it remains an organizational focus. To get it done, the Nats will have to give him a whole lotta cash — like, A LOT of cash.
As the extension negotiations play out behind the scenes, Soto will undoubtedly continue to amaze on the field. As the Nationals’ vastly inexperienced bullpen slowly let the game slip away Thursday, with a final score of 5-1, Soto still made sure to put on a show for the fans who stuck it out through the rain for a game that started more than four hours later than originally scheduled.
For mere mortals, it might take a few weeks for even a good hitter to start to feel locked in at the plate. But you could see Soto dialing it in over the course of his first four official at-bats of the season.
In his first, he rolled over to second base on a well-located changeup. Next time up, he swung through a high fastball from Megill at 98 mph.
That was all he needed to see, apparently.
Third time's a charm:
His fourth and final at-bat? A four-pitch walk, of course. The first of many this season, surely.
Soto might be something of a one-man show for Washington in 2022, but rarely will he disappoint.
Friday will bring another reminder of the recent yet seemingly distant past for the Nationals, as Scherzer is scheduled to make his Mets debut on the mound with which he became so familiar in his seven years in D.C.
For the Mets, Scherzer’s start represents comforting consolation after the crushing news of the deGrom injury. Lose one super-mega-ace? Here comes another. That’s the standard owner Steve Cohen clearly tried to set with his spending spree this past winter.
The Mets aren’t messing around. And in one sense, Cohen’s spending put pressure on the rest of the National League to keep up. But the pressure is now also on the Mets themselves to finally deliver what their devoted fan base has been craving ever since they came up short in 2015: a legitimate World Series contender. Every game this season will feel urgent.
For Soto, just 23 years old with a World Series already in his back pocket and the baseball world at his fingertips, the pressure is off. Maybe an extension gets done; maybe it doesn’t. The Nationals might not be the favorites in the NL East or in many games in 2022, but that’s OK.
Soto is almost certainly gonna have a damn good time. No matter the opponent. No matter the score.
Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.