Neftali Soto

I have such a soft spot for the slugger-who-finds-his-second-act-in-Japan story, and Neftalí Soto is exactly that for me. He's a big Puerto Rican first baseman, all 185 cm of him, who got his cup of coffee with the Cincinnati Reds but never quite locked down an everyday MLB job. Then he crossed the Pacific and just mashed for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, leading the Central League with 41 home runs in 2018 and 43 in 2019. I love that. There's something so satisfying about a guy whose raw power finally gets a full canvas, and Soto delivered the kind of loud, scoreboard-rattling home runs that make a ballpark gasp. To me he's the quiet pro who let the bat do all the talking, and honestly it talked plenty.

Name (English)

Neftali Soto

Name (Japanese)

ネフタリ・ソト

Reading

ねふたり・そと

Born

February 28, 1989 (age 37)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Snake

Origin

Manatí, United States

Height

185 cm

Occupation

baseball player

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/n.soto99/
• Xhttps://x.com/nsoto50
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neftal%C3%AD%20Soto%20(baseball)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8D%E3%83%95%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BD%E3%83%88
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6987041

Tags

• baseball player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.