Juan Soto officially homered five days before his major league debut, a quirk of a rain-suspended game that perfectly symbolizes a career spent defying baseball’s normal timeline. This deep dive traces his rise from a Santo Domingo teenager to the largest contract in professional sports history.

We explore how his father engineered a right-handed kid into a left-handed hitter, the psychological warfare of the Soto Shuffle, and the elite plate discipline that made him worth $765 million.

• Why being trained to hit left-handed became a built-in advantage
• An opposite-field homer on his first start that shocked the league
• His 2019 World Series heroics on his 21st birthday
• Turning down $440 million in Washington to bet on free agency
• The Mets deal and his habit of buying teammates off jersey number 22