WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Howie Kendrick is a 13-year major league baseball veteran. He has played with greats like Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Adrian Gonzalez.
Oh, did I mention he played with Bryce Harper as well?
Yet here he was, in the Washington Nationals clubhouse, taking pictures of the man — the man being 20-year-old Juan Soto, who arrived at spring training in West Palm Beach Monday amid the kind of attention and fanfare typically paid to team leaders and stars.
“I’m taking pictures for my book,” said Kendrick, perhaps joking, though we may not be that far from books about the life and times of Juan Soto, last season’s rookie outfield sensation for Washington.
Things are moving quickly in that life and those times.
Last spring, Soto was a Nationals minor leaguer, dressing in a part of the complex far away from the major league locker room. He had a few appearances in exhibition games and made enough of an impression that the press corps gathered in a hallway one afternoon to get a few minutes with Soto before he was sent down into the Washington farm system.
Things are different this year.
On Monday, he held court in front of his locker in the major league clubhouse — right next to the other half of the Dominican duo that is the future of Nationals baseball, fellow outfielder Victor Robles.
“It’s really good to see what a nice clubhouse is here,” Soto said. “I’ve never been on this side. It feels pretty good being with these guys again. New year, starting from the first day. Feels pretty good.”
This is what Robles, 21, and Soto dreamed of — playing together, side by side, in the major leagues. Last spring, Robles — then the Nationals’ top prospect and one of the highest-regarded in baseball — spoke of that dream. “We’ve always talked about it,” Robles said through interpreter Octavio Martinez. “We’ve always said, ’In three or four years, if we keep doing our thing, we’ll be there together, side by side.’ We do talk about that a lot.”
Soto sped that timetable up when, after getting called up from Class AA Harrisburg in May when injuries cost the Nationals a slew of outfielders — including Kendrick, who suffered a ruptured Achilles’ and missed the rest of the season.
Soto homered on the first pitch of his first start, and by the time the season ended, he’d posted a historic season for a 19-year-old — 22 home runs, 70 RBI and a .292 batting average in 116 games, finishing second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. He went on a major league players’ tour of Japan after the season, and in one game blasted a shot that hit the roof of the Tokyo Dome, but was still in play as it landed for a harmless fly out.
“I hit the ball really hard,” Soto said. “It’s one of the hardest I’ve hit at all. When it hit the roof, I think they’re going to call it a homer, but they said no. But I crushed it.”
Soto has a presence, and that presence is amplified by the absence of free agent Bryce Harper. Harper welcomed Soto when the youngster was called up last May and bought him several suits to help prepare for the business of major league baseball. “He helped me a lot last year,” Soto said of Harper. “Now I take all his words for me and I’m going to keep doing it. If I see him maybe later it’s going to be good. If not, I’m going to keep what he told me. And I’ve got more players here, more veteran players, and they can help me, too.”
Harper arrived in that clubhouse already celebrated at the age of 19, having been on the cover of Sports Illustrated three years earlier. There was almost a sense of fatigue before he got there.
Soto has the presence of found money, and the joy that comes with that.
“We talk all the time,” Kendrick said. “His locker (at the Nationals Park clubhouse) is over by mine. We have good conversations about the game in general. The guy wants to win, and he’s willing to put in the work every day. He’s happy. He loves the game. He goes 0 for 4 and he’s right back at it. I played with another guy like that. His name is Mike Trout — just had a great attitude every single day. I see a lot of those similarities in Juan.”
Later, as Kendrick walked by Soto’s locker, he picked up a package for Soto in front of the stool where he sat. “Look, it says Washington Nationals Player of the Century,” Kendrick joked.
Like I said — a presence.
⦁ Hear Thom Loverro on 106.7 The Fan Wednesday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday mornings and on the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast every Tuesday and Thursday.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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